Red Bull has seen a rapid Red Bull downfall just 6 months after their incredible domination. The reigning champions are currently struggling on almost every track as they last won 7 races ago. It’s all happening way too fast and started soon after Adrian Newey’s departure. Now, former world champion Nico Rosberg believes things will only get worse.
Even though many believed Red Bull would enjoy the fruits of Newey’s labor, the RB20’s struggles propped up soon after the exit announcement. Then it was later revealed the British engineer was majorly focused on the Red Bull hypercar project. However, according to Rosberg that’s just the start of their misery. He believes his departure will have a domino effect.
As quoted by Crash.net, he said, “I’m sure he (Adrian Newey) would have had a positive impact now if he was still involved. It’s more difficult without him. When he leaves, it accelerates the brain drain. They are like: ‘If he’s not here maybe I want to take on a new challenge because it was with Adrian that I liked to work with’. It spirals.”
BREAKING: Red Bull confirm Adrian Newey will leave the team in early 2025#F1 pic.twitter.com/x0IEZfzYNg
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He highlighted when a team struggles it’s reflected in all aspects. A usually faultless Red Bull team was slow during almost every pitstop in Monza. It’s not just the genius engineer, multiple key figures have left the Austrian outfit. Even team principal Christian Horner admitted after the 2024 Italian GP that the team is in a vicious cycle with no solution in sight.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner admits the team is stuck in a loop with their ongoing struggles
The RB20 has been exposed on multiple occasions now with many of its shortcomings being highlighted almost every race weekend. While the team is trying to fix the issues immediately, Horner admitted they have no solution.
During a post-race interview, he admitted, “I think on other [tracks], running more downforce perhaps hides some of the balance issues that we have, and you can see that we’ve got a disconnection in balance that just isn’t working. As soon as you end up in that situation, you end up [where] you’re harder on tyres, you end up compensating the balance around – to cure one problem you create another, so you just end up in a vicious circle.”
As the reigning champions try to find a solution, their lead in both championships is being reduced rapidly. They’re under incredible pressure as the constructor’s championship already seems to be lost. They might suffer the same unfavorable outcome in the driver’s championship as well.