“This is no criticism”: Adrian Newey shares his honest take on Red Bull 2024 woes amid McLaren’s title challenge

Adrian Newey has opened up on Red Bull Racing's struggles with the 2024 season car, RB20. He opined that the lack of experience within the engineering team coupled with McLaren's and Ferrari's quick gains were key factors behind the Milton Keynes-based squad's defeat in the constructors championship.

Newey announced his shock exit from the energy drink-based outfit in May 2025 and immediately stepped away from his F1-related duties. He instead channeled his focus on the RB17 hypercar project.

However, after Newey took a backseat, the team saw a sharp dip in performance. McLaren and Ferrari cut down the gap and pipped the Milton Keynes based squad to finish P1 and P2 respectively in the constructors championship standings.

Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Auto Motor und Sport, Newey shared his opinion on the Bull's woes and pointed out lack of experience as a significant factor.

“I think Red Bull, from what I could see, the car was already the ’24 car, and through the very last stages of ’23 as well, I would say, starting to become more difficult to drive. It’s something I was starting to become concerned about, but not many of the people in the organization seemed to be very concerned about," Newey said (via F1's official website).

"From what I can see from the outside — but I don’t know — the guys at Red Bull, this is no criticism, but I think they just perhaps, through lack of experience, kept going in that same direction, and the problem became more and more acute to the point that even Max found it difficult to drive," he added.

Adrian Newey had apparently foreseen the problems of the RB series before it hit the team in 2024. However, he suggests that many engineers in the team failed to anticipate the same, leading to chaos in the past season.

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Adrian Newey shares true feelings on leaving Red Bull

Former Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey (Image Source: Getty)

Renowned design engineer Adrian Newey's sudden departure announcement shocked the F1 fraternity in May 2024. He left Red Bull after 20 years of association to join Lawrence Stroll's Aston Martin from 2025.

While Newey's bond with his former team was tight, he opened up on the key reason behind his abrupt exit, telling Auto Motor und Sport:

"For various reasons, I felt I wouldn't be true to myself if I stayed at Red Bull. So the first difficult decision was exactly that: do I stay or not? So I obviously came to the conclusion that, in being honest with myself, I couldn't."

Newey's exit, followed by sporting director Jonathan Wheatley's departure to Sauber, came as a huge setback to the Milton Keynes-based squad, especially with a crucial 2025 season on the horizon.