Max Verstappen insists he has ‘no hard feelings’ over Jonathan Wheatley’s switch to Audi
Max Verstappen reflected on Red Bull's long-time Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley's decision to move to Audi.
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Max Verstappen(L) and Jonathan Wheatley(R), images via IMAGO
Red Bull began the 2024 season with a car that was the class of the field but faced allegations against its team principal for inappropriate behavior. This formed rifts between the team, causing Adrian Newey to announce his departure, leading to Jonathan Wheatley‘s announcement of his move to Audi a few months later. However, Max Verstappen claimed that he feels nothing bad for the British engineer as he would venture off into a rival team next year.
The campaign has been full of ups and downs for Red Bull. It has been troubled by the RB20 hitting the development ceiling and not being as obedient as McLaren‘s MCL38. This has forced them to lose ground in the constructor’s standings, with Sergio Perez‘s subpar form adding salt to injury. Witnessing the slowing trends in Milton Keynes, personnel within the team have been leaving for better opportunities elsewhere.
Despite his substantial role in the team’s success, Jonathan Wheatley‘s Red Bull chapter would be closing after the end of the 2024 campaign. On the other hand, Max Verstappen revealed that he had a great relationship with the 57-year-old and is happy for the role he would be acquiring in the Audi project.
I have a great relationship with Jonathan and it always will be like that anyway, even if he's moving to a different team. But it's a different opportunity for him and also a different role and a new challenge. So there are no hard feelings or whatever. I'm happy for him that he gets that opportunity.Max Verstappen via F1 TV
The Dutchman further explained.
Of course he will be missed within the team but as a team we also have to look at the future and move on from that, we still have to see how we're going to fill in all the roles that Jonathan currently has. I'm also happy for him. It goes both ways. And the team is also very thankful for what he has delivered for the team. So, yeah, there are no hard feelings at all.Max Verstappen said
The reigning champion explained he does not have any hard feelings for Wheatley leaving the team. However, he admitted that the Brit would be missed and claimed that Red Bull has to fill the void that would be created by his departure soon.
Max Verstappen reproached Helmut Marko’s statements of downgrading the RB20
Apart from the stress of trying to fill the void that would be created by Wheatley, the Austrian giant has found itself amidst an unexpected title battle. Moreover, in an attempt to solve the performance struggles, Helmut Marko revealed that they would mix and match different upgrades to get the car in the working window.
However, this approach was soon countered by the Dutchman, who reckoned that downgrading the car was not a solution.
We are working hard on that. Hopefully we can get some answers to that this weekend and we'll go from there. We'll see what we can improve on the car. [Down dating the car] is not the case. You analyse a lot of things and from there adjustments come. And that's going to start here in Zandvoort.Max Verstappen said in an interview with GPBlog
Verstappen asserted that the team was working hard to fix the problems. Furthermore, he looked over to the weekend in an attempt to find crucial data to fix such problems but was not in favor of downgrading the RB20 before any data was analyzed.
As it stands, Red Bull has a 42-point lead over McLaren. Thus, if Red Bull’s plans don’t work in Zandvoort, then they have a serious task at hand to defend their championship lead amidst the Woking-based squad’s eye-catching resurgence.
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Geetansh Pasricha
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