Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko admitted “of course we’re missing” F1 design legend Adrian Newey after a challenging start to F1 2025.

Though as the RB21 goes through some early teething problems, Marko explained how Red Bull “gradually built up” the personnel that would take over from him.

Red Bull ‘of course missing a man like that’

Newey – already with title success at Williams and McLaren on his CV – arrived at Red Bull in 2006, and went on to play a key role in all 14 of Red Bull’s title successes since.

However, it was ahead of the 2024 Miami Grand Prix that the shock news broke of Newey’s exit, his Red Bull Racing involvement ending there and then, as he saw out his Red Bull tenure working on their RB17 hypercar.

Red Bull had dominated F1’s ground effect era – those regulations arriving in 2022 – but lost their way with the RB20 as 2024 went on, the team at one stage going 10 races without a victory.

Max Verstappen was still able to secure a fourth straight Drivers’ Championship, but Red Bull dropped to P3 in the Constructors’ and have work to do to make their RB21 a title-winning car, McLaren having started F1 2025 with two wins, putting them 21 points ahead of Mercedes at the top of the Constructors’ and 42 up on Red Bull.

And in an OE24 interview, Marko was asked to address the idea that Newey leaving could have something to do with Red Bull’s drop-off.

Newey went on to join Aston Martin as managing technical partner, also receiving shares in the team.

“Of course we’re missing a man like that. A Newey is a Newey,” Marko replied.

“But we are a team of almost a thousand people. The crew behind him was gradually built up.”

After Verstappen finished P4 at the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull called an emergency meeting at their Milton Keynes HQ, and Marko has opened up on the main focus of that meeting as they look to put the RB21 into title contention.

“This meeting is primarily about Max sitting down with the technicians and going through the next steps,” Marko revealed.

“The aim is to calmly address Max’s wishes and criticisms.”

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Red Bull has already made a major change by removing Liam Lawson from the RB21 cockpit, the New Zealander sent back to Racing Bulls after just two grands prix which saw no points scored and a clean sweep of Q1 exits, as Yuki Tsunoda moves the other way to take over alongside Verstappen.

Red Bull’s Lawson decision has unsurprisingly triggered a great deal of debate, and in the blunt opinion of 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, Lawson paid the price for his attitude.

Lawson’s prior F1 experience came in two stints with Racing Bulls, and his six races last season were an audition to earn himself a place in Red Bull’s F1 2025 plans.

As part of that, he was not afraid to ruffle some feathers, most notably irking two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso and the driver he replaced, Sergio Perez, who he showed the middle finger to at Perez’s home race in Mexico.

“You have to bear in mind that he came into F1 very arrogant,” Villeneuve said of Lawson to NZCasino.

“He came into F1 last year saying how amazing he would be and he had an attitude. When the results don’t come, it makes everybody react even stronger.

“It’s actually the worst result ever in a Red Bull car, so he’s paying his own price there. He set himself up in a way.

“When you start with Red Bull you have to be on it right away, and that’s the price to pay for being put in the best team.

“You want to take that risk? Good. But then the opposite side is you’ll pay a dear price if it doesn’t work out.

“That’s just the way it is, and that’s okay. That’s how it should be.”

That being said, Red Bull’s call to demote Lawson after just two grands prix did surprise Villeneuve.

“I thought they might give him another three races when they come back to Europe, so they could then make a considered decision,” he concluded.

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