McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown admitted to not being surprised by Adrian Newey’s decision to leave Red Bull “given everything that’s gone on” at the championship winning team this year.
As F1’s defending champions, Red Bull was set to embark on another banner year as it exited the sport’s winter break.
But allegations of improper conduct levied upon team boss Christian Horner by a female employee of Red Bull just before the start of the 2024 season triggered a significant period of disruptions within the team.
While Horner was absolved of any wrong doing following an independent investigation into the allegation commissioned by Red Bull’s top brass in Austria, a subsequent political war erupted within the team between Horner and Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, with the latter supported by the Verstappen family.
In Miami on Friday, Horner denied that the tensions swirling within the team earlier this year were a factor in Newey’s decision to call it a day, the designer clearly hinted at such a possibility when he spoke about when the idea of leaving Red Bull had crept in.
"I guess over the winter a little bit and then as events unfolded this year…” he said.
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Questioned in Miami on Newey’s exit, Brown said that he wasn’t surprised by the outcome, and foresees more "dominoes to fall” at the team.
“Six months ago, I would have been surprised,” commented the McLaren boss.
“I think given everything that’s gone on since the start of the year and knowing Adrian pretty well, and he’s a very high-integrity individual, I’m not surprised he’s moving on.
“The stuff that’s going on there is a bit destabilizing. It’s probably the first domino to fall. We’ve seen an increase in CVs coming our way from the team.
“I think Adrian is the most successful designer of all time. So in addition to the technical that he brings to the racing team, people want to work for people like Adrian Newey and work alongside him.
“So I think they will be missing what he brings to the team from a pure technical point of view. And then I think the leadership and the excitement people get from working with him will be missed.”
Asked if McLaren could be a possible destination for Newey in the future, Brown said that he was perfectly happy with the team’s current engineering department.
“As far as McLaren’s concerned, I’m very happy with all the work the men and women at McLaren are doing,” he said.
“I think we’ve started to show since last year, second half of last year, that they know how to put performance on the car.
“So I’ve got all the faith in the world with the team that we have. We’re on a quest to get back to the front, and I think we have the people, the talent, the equipment, the drivers to get there, so we’re going to just stay the course.”
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