Former Ferrari engineer Ernest Knoors believes that if Adrian Newey makes the decision to leave Red Bull, it may create “question marks” for those who remain in the team, and even make staff open to a move.
This week it was widely reported that Newey was reflecting on his long career at Red Bull after 18 years with the team, he remains under contract until the end of 2025 and the team said they “didn’t know he would be joining another team”.
It should be noted that despite the widely circulated rumours circulating about the key figure at Red Bull, there has been no official confirmation that he is close to leaving the team.
However, the fact that there is so much talk about it has sparked a lot of debate on the subject, with former Ferrari engineer Knoors explaining that if the totemic Newey figure ends up leaving the team he helped bring Formula 1 to its senses, he may simply have others take their own place in the team.
“I’ve experienced this myself at Ferrari,” Knoors told RacingNews365 of a moment when he turned the guard into a dominant team, in his own experience.
“At some point, the Michael Schumacher era ended there and Ross Brawn left.
“When such a vital user makes the decision to leave, you have to ask yourself: where are they going?
While Newey and Red Bull’s top officials have insisted on the team’s detail when assembling its cars, with technical director Pierre Waché rising in recent years, it remains Newey who has the overall duty of the branch as a leader-generating official.
But even if others thrive, Knoors believes the departure of a figurehead like Newey would create a challenge to the team’s stability, and it would be up to Christian Horner to retain enough skill for Red Bull to move forward.
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“It doesn’t matter if Waché has more influence,” Knoors said.
“When such a prominent figure on your team and so much greatness leaves, it creates question marks in the other people who work there. This creates confusion in this organization.
“It makes people, engineers and mechanics, more open to donations from other teams, and that’s the case for a team that plays its game to the max for a long time.
“At some point, other people start looking, maybe the ones at the top. Are there openings in other groups where they can just step up?
“That’s the big point for Red Bull. La stability of the team. Who else will leave?
“At some point, a strong leader, in this case Christian Horner, has to make sure he helps keep enough managers and brilliant minds in his team.
“And Christian Horner is ultimately the undisputed and impeccable leader who can provide that?That’s debatable. “
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