Red Bull is heading straight for a crisis in Formula 1, which, according to Ralf Schumacher, could be partly due to a possibly underestimated personnel issue
For Red Bull, the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship did not start as hoped. In the Constructors’ Championship, the dominant team of recent years is in third place, 36-78 points behind McLaren. And Max Verstappen says that the RB21 is currently probably only the fourth-fastest car on the grid.
As early as September 2024, when Red Bull was increasingly being outpaced by McLaren, Max’s father Jos Verstappen feared: “This is exactly what I warned about.” After all, he had emphatically pointed out immediately after the Horner affair became known that the team might now “explode”.
And indeed, the internal unrest a year ago obviously did not pass Red Bull by without leaving a mark. Adrian Newey moved to Aston Martin, and the long-standing successful team manager Jonathan Wheatley moved to Audi. Even before the Horner affair became known, Rob Marshall had left Red Bull for McLaren.
Schumacher: Red Bull underestimated Marshall’s departure
A change whose effects Red Bull may have “underestimated”, as Sky expert Ralf Schumacher says in an interview on the YouTube channel of Formel1.de: “He’s doing a great job.” Marshall went through the “long school” with Newey, “and for him it was time to leave at some point. Red Bull could have reacted more cleverly.”
In his opinion, Red Bull should have fought harder to keep Marshall. Because a little later, Newey also left, and the engineering department suddenly had to compensate for an enormous drain of expertise and knowledge. And “you had to assume that Adrian would say at some point, ‘I don’t want to anymore’.”
Marshall never enjoyed the same public recognition as Newey in his career as an engineer, but was always considered a second-tier man. However, his technical innovations have won world championships. One of the most famous is the vibration damper, with which his then employer Renault became world champion in 2005 with Fernando Alonso at the wheel.
It may be a coincidence, but the temporal correlation between Marshall’s start at McLaren in January 2024 and the team’s sporting upswing is interesting. McLaren started the season a year ago behind. No sooner had Marshall worked there for a few months than things really took off with the first technical updates.
Why a man can make all the difference after all
Even if thousands of people develop and build a car in Formula 1, it is sometimes inspiring personalities and workaholics like Newey or Marshall who can make the difference. Someone like Newey, Schumacher believes, should never have been allowed to leave Red Bull.
“He is extremely ambitious, but also an incredible family man who involves his whole group and then also spends time with his people at home, in his private life. I think that makes a big difference. You have to give everyone their space, but you also have to unite everyone and get the best out of them. And he is incredibly good at that.”
In addition, Newey’s passion for occasionally driving race cars himself means that he understands not only the theory but also the practice: “A driver also has to drive the car. That means the car has to be driveable and have a slightly wider limit.” Understanding this balance is what Newey “is all about”.
Adrian Newey has been officially Managing Technical Partner and a minor shareholder in Aston Martin since March 3. He had worked for Red Bull from 2006 to 2024. Rob Marshall was first chief designer at Red Bull and later chief engineering officer. At McLaren, he is now technical director for engineering and design.
