Max Verstappen insists things went wrong for Red Bull ‘long time before’ Adrian Newey’s exit

Max Verstappen firmly believes that Adrian Newey's decision to leave Red Bull is not the main reason behind the team's recent struggles.

Max Verstappen insists things went wrong for Red Bull ‘long time before’ Adrian Newey’s exit

Adrian Newey and Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)

Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominated Formula 1 at the start of the ground-effect era. Many credited Adrian Newey‘s incredible designs for this success. After Newey announced his exit from the team in May, Red Bull has started to struggle. However, Verstappen asserted that the aero-genius’ departure was not the reason for his recent problems.

The three-time world champion highlighted that the Austrian team’s struggles started a long time ago. Max Verstappen admitted that Red Bull seemed to have started facing issues right at the time of Adrian Newey’s announcement.

I wouldn’t say it’s just that. Of course, when it was announced, that’s where it started to go a little bit wrong for us.
Max Verstappen said, as reported by Formu1a.uno
YouTube video

However, Verstappen insisted that the issues must’ve started long before Adrian Newey decided to end his long journey with Red Bull. The Dutch driver reckoned that the team simply did not realize the issues it was facing back then.

FS Video
But I think it already started to go wrong for us a long time before, but we didn’t really see that at the time.
Max Verstappen added
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Adrian Newey and Lewis Hamilton (via IMAGO)

Max Verstappen claims Red Bull’s problems ‘crept over time’

Verstappen won seven races at the start of the year. Unfortunately, things only went downhill since. The Dutch driver has now gone winless for six races in a row. Max Verstappen emphasized that Newey’s exit was not directly related to the car’s issues. Rather, the reigning world champion asserted that the problems crept over time.

Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)
Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)
So I personally don’t think it’s related. That is not to be of course negative towards Adrian or whatever, I definitely don’t see it as something that is related, but it’s something that crept in over time.
Max Verstappen explained

Certainly, Max Verstappen has not sugarcoated Red Bull’s situation. The 26-year-old recognizes that the team seemed to have overlooked its struggles at the start of the year. Now, Verstappen would be hoping that Milton Keynes can get itself back on track with just eight races to go in 2024.

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