Rival teams do not expect Red Bull to suffer any short-term repercussions of Adrian Newey's departure: Reports

Red Bull has announced that its CTO Adrian Newey will leave the team in the first quarter of 2025 and has stopped his F1 duties immediately.

The 65-year-old has been a cornerstone of the Austrian team's success as his cars have brought seven drivers' and six constructors' championships to the team. Many in the F1 circuit believe that the Milton-Keynes outfit might suffer without his expertise and fall back in the sport.

However, as reported by Motorsport Italy, rival teams believe that Red Bull would not suffer any short-term repercussions of Newey's exit as they already have a core engineering team headed by Pierre Wache who will ensure continuity until the end of the 2025 season.

Wache is the technical director of the Austrian team and has been pivotal in the success of the team since 2018. His engineering group consists of aerodynamic manager Enrico Balbo, along with Craig Skinner, Ben Waterhouse and Paul Monaghan.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner had showcased his support and entrusted Wache to lead the team while Adrian Newey had taken a back seat in the day-to-day racing matters.

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McLaren team boss chimes in on closing the gap to Red Bull

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said they could close the gap to the world champions in the next 12 months if they continue to develop rapidly.

As per Autosport, Stella said:

"I think overall, if we take the 12-month period, we have developed more than anybody else. I think Red Bull did not develop very much last year. Clearly, they were working quite a lot in the background because they innovated the car dramatically. To innovate the car like they did - it takes months of redesign. They were doing all this work, and then when they came with a new car, it was a big step.

"So even if we lost some ground, I think we lost some ground because we gained so much ground before and while they were not developing. That's why I think we need to look at things over the long period. Over the long period, we are in a strong trajectory.

The McLaren team boss added:

"For me, this is also what we say internally: if we keep this trajectory of development for the next 12 months, then why not? We may reach Red Bull."

It would be interesting to see if McLaren can truly catch up with the Austrian team and challenge them for the title next season.