Has Adrian Newey's departure led to Red Bull's downfall? Helmut Marko addresses departure of star designer

Red Bull chief advisor Helmut Marko has rubbished suggestions that Adrian Newey's departure has played a role in the team's sudden drop in form. Newey ended an almost two-decade-long partnership earlier in the season.

The move shocked many in the paddock, with Adrian Newey yet to decide his next destination even though Aston Martin appears to be an almost done deal. Amidst that, Newey's departure has coincided with Red Bull's performance falling off a cliff. They saw rival McLaren catch up in Miami, with Lando Norris winning.

However, McLaren's progress and Red Bull's demise did not end in Miami, as it was just the beginning. Since then, the Woking-based McLaren squad have jumped to the front of the grid, while reigning champions Red Bull were a lowly fourth fastest at the recently concluded Italian GP.

Addressing suggestions that Newey's departure could have had a role in the team's downfall, Marko worte in his column for Speedweek:

"Of course, fans are circulating the opinion that our relapse has something to do with Adrian Newey's departure. But that is not true. Newey was no longer involved in all the details of vehicle development in the spring."

He added:

“Of course, this cannot be denied: Newey is Newey, a man with incredible experience, which has always distinguished him. But our problem lies elsewhere. The examples of Mercedes and, to a lesser extent, Ferrari have shown how difficult teams are when dealing with these wing cars.”

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Red Bull advisor positive about team's bounce-back

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko sounded confident that the team can once again regain their top form and overcome their ssues. One of the major issues has been the car's lack of balance in the car, making it undrivable.

Addressing the same, Marko hoped that Red Bull would find a solution as he said:

“I remain optimistic: we have a very broad technical team and I am convinced that we can solve this problem.

"The key question now is: how do we go about finding the good vehicle balance from the first part of the season? Max Verstappen said in Monza that he did not need twenty points more downforce if it made the car undrivable."

He added:

“So we have to rebuild and hopefully find the point where the car was in balance. If we manage that, the car's behaviour will be predictable again, the drivers will gain new confidence and will be able to contribute ideally again.

"Of course, that's a difficult task because we've put a lot of new parts on the car since then. Simply put - we have to find out where we went wrong technically.”

Red Bull are in deep trouble at the moment in terms of car balance. Both their team and driver's championships are in danger, so if they don't find the right solution soon, they could lose both titles.