Günther Steiner is not surprised to see many Red Bull employees leaving the team. After Rob Marshall last year, Red Bull Racing recorded the departures of Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley and Will Courtenay.
The former boss of Haas F1 explains that this is the price of success, but also a consequence of the difficulties – admittedly relative – that the Milton Keynes team is currently going through, with employees who anticipate bouncing elsewhere.
“Staff turnover is a little higher than usual, just looking back over the last few years” Steiner said. “How many people were leaving the company? No one, no one was leaving in the last ten years. All of a sudden this year they’re leaving left and right.”
“Jonathan Wheatley, Adrian, Will… who else? There’s a long list of people leaving, which didn’t happen before. But it’s also cyclical, like people who have been there for a long time and one leaves, the other says, ‘Oh, that would be good for me too’.”
“People know the team is worth less, and they have to leave while they still have value because they were on the best team or the best team in the last five years. If you wait too long and the team is no longer as strong, your value decreases.”
Horner’s place also threatened?
The Italian, however, salutes the overall level of Red Bull’s technical teams, and recalls that there are still very solid elements within the team: “I think a lot of engineers are still there. There are good people there.”
“Pierre Waché, the technical director, is very good, he is still there. They will therefore rebuild themselves with the young talents they have in their ranks. When we are like that, we give opportunities to people who would otherwise , would leave, and we never give them the opportunity internally.”
“Today, with the departure of the best, there are the new ones arriving and they could be as good as those who are leaving, or even better. We don’t know. We have to find out. But I think that the team is so strong that it can fill many positions internally.”
And Steiner recalled that the position of Christian Horner, the director of Red Bull, will not be assured if the team does not return to its usual standards: “Absolutely. When you win, whatever you do, everything is fine. When you don’t win anymore, you become vulnerable.”
“Your body armor is getting thinner and thinner. More and more bullets are being fired, and at some point it’s obviously difficult to defend yourself. Christian is working hard to get back into the shape he was in at all start of the year to win and at that time safe.”
According to him, Max Verstappen will eventually join Mercedes, given the atmosphere at Red Bull and the dissatisfaction of the Verstappen clan, led by father Jos. And he thinks George Russell will go the other way to Red Bull.
“I see him landing at Mercedes. But he has options. I see him at Mercedes in 2026. It is certain that there are a lot of rants. But there is no smoke without fire. Christian will have need a top driver if Max leaves And George, for sure, is there.”
We must “take seriously” what McLaren F1 is doing
As McLaren ended Red Bull’s dominance, Steiner jokes that Horner was not a pleasant winner: “Who was the most annoying at the top? I would say Christian. Because there was too much drama, you know. There was never any drama with Toto. It was just: ‘We win, because’ we are the best.”
“But I think that changed quite quickly, because now everyone thinks that what McLaren showed in Singapore shows that we need to start taking them seriously.”
“And I think McLaren and Zak [Brown, PDG] et Andrea [Stella, directeur de l’équipe] are doing a good job of being loved. Zak makes peace with Christian, to look good: ‘We’re all nice people, but we’re stealing the championship and you don’t really notice’.”
“But at the moment there is still euphoria, because they took away this domination from Red Bull. And Andrea is a very humble man, you know, his etiquette is perfect. He doesn’t swear, I I’m sure of that. And Zak is just Zak, you know, he’s always happy to be everywhere, anywhere, he’s happy.”
