Max Verstappen shrugs off Zak Brown's comments about Red Bull facing imminent resource drain: "He wants to stir things up"

Max Verstappen has shrugged off comments from McLaren boss Zak Brown, where the American alluded to Adrian Newey's departure, a sign of an imminent resource drain from Red Bull. The Austrian team has dominated the sport in the turbo hybrid era, losing just one race in 2023.

The team, however, has been a political mess in 2024. It started with an early-season internal investigation on Christian Horner. This was followed by a political battle within the team that saw the squad get divided into two camps.

While all of this has not necessarily impacted Red Bull's on-track performance, with Max Verstappen winning four of the first six races, this has led to the loss of key designer Adrian Newey. In an announcement that surprised everyone, the aero wizard's departure from Red Bull was announced, as he would now no longer work on the F1 side of things.

With this development, rival team principal Zak Brown gave his take on the situation as he said that this was just the start of a domino effect. The American claimed that Max Verstappen's team was looking at an imminent resource drain that could impact the team in the long run.

When questioned about Zak Brown's comments, Max Verstappen shrugged off any of these suggestions as he felt the American was just trying to stir things up. As quoted by PlanetF1, the Red Bull driver said:

"He obviously wants to stir things up. For us as a team, we can’t do anything with comments like that. From his point of view, I understand it of course, because everyone is trying to attract our people and that is completely normal in the world of Formula 1 as well."

He added:

“But I’m not really interested in those things either. I see the headlines, but I don’t even click on them."

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Max Verstappen admits Adrian Newey's departure will have an impact long-term

Talking about Adrian Newey's departure, Max Verstappen admitted that the loss is certainly going to impact the team. While the impact will not be short-term, it will be there when he works for a rival team.

"Not at the moment. I think people in the press, they’re making up a lot of things at the moment, because they don’t understand how the roles were in the team. But of course, like I said before, I cannot deny that I would have preferred him to stay, just for how he is as a person, his knowledge," Verstappen said.

He added:

"And of course, what he will bring to potentially another team if he wants to join. Besides that, I trust that the people that we have, they are incredibly good at what they do.”

There are rumors of Adrian Newey possibly signing with Ferrari for 2025. There are even rumors of Max Verstappen looking for a move away from Red Bull to possibly Mercedes. This is a tricky time for the Austrian team. The impact felt due to these changes will be long-term, and that's something that should ideally be avoided at all costs.