From Williams to McLaren and now Red Bull, groups may say “no problem” when it comes to Adrian Newey’s departure, but Christian Danner says it’s anything but.
Red Bull announced in the run-up to the Miami Grand Prix that this season will be Newey’s last full year with Red Bull as he will leave the team in early 2025.
The famed design guru, who has 25 championship titles within his reach and two more to watch this season, has stepped away from Red Bull’s Formula 1 operations and will instead concentrate on the RB17 hypercar while working on his gardening holiday.
But while team boss Christian Horner has played down Newey’s departure, insisting he leaves behind a well-oiled technical department, Helmut Marko says it’s a “huge” loss for Red Bull.
Former F1 driver Danner with the Austrian.
He even went so far as to hope that it would be “the beginning of the end” for the two-time world champion.
“This is the beginning of the end of Red Bull Racing’s dominance,” he told Avd Motorsport magazine.
“I’m not saying they’re going to clash, but the dominance ended with Adrian Newey’s departure. In each and every team Adrian worked for, when he left, they said: No problem!
“He’s still the guy who has a review and the guy who dominates the matter. “
Red Bull has won the last 3 Drivers’ Championship titles and the last two Constructors’ titles, a 1-2 tie in the 2023 Drivers’ standings.
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While Williams has won 59 Grands Prix with a Newey-designed car, it has won only 11 since. As for McLaren, although it enjoyed good luck following Newey’s departure in 2006, it has only won two races in the last decade.
Danner played down Horner’s claims that Red Bull were up to the task of winning titles after learning from the master himself.
“If it were that simple, all of Adrian Newey’s students would have built a winning car,” Danner said. “This is a much more serious deviation than I would like to admit.
“When things weren’t going well at Red Bull, what happened?Adrian had to come to the track.
He also warned Red Bull that communication about retirement or exhaustion would last for a while and then Newey, with his record of championship wins, would move on to new pastures.
“Sounds good, now a sabbatical. . . But then Adrian is bored to death,” he added.
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