Max Verstappen will achieve one feat Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost never managed if he wins the 2025 F1 championship

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Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen faces arguably the most challenging season of his Formula 1 career since becoming a world champion.

After an incredible battle with Lewis Hamilton that went down to the final lap in 2021, Max Verstappen has gone on to dominate the sport with Red Bull.

The 2023 season in particular is likely to go down as the most dominant in the sport’s history, with Red Bull winning every event apart from the Singapore Grand Prix.

Many expected last year to be a similar story with Verstappen winning four of the first five races and teammate Sergio Perez joining him on the podium in each of those races.

However, while Verstappen was quick to congratulate Lando Norris for winning the Miami Grand Prix, that proved to be the turning point in his season and Red Bull’s development.

McLaren had turned a corner with their car and Ferrari quickly followed suit, with Red Bull suddenly the third-fastest team with Mercedes breathing down their neck.

Verstappen clung onto his lead in the drivers’ championship but pre-season testing has provided an early indication that he’s unlikely to be able to build up that same buffer this year.

McLaren have made strides forward again while Red Bull had a more difficult time in Bahrain, completing the fewest laps during testing.

Although there are many factors that could be the cause of this, there’s one that many people will point to if Red Bull haven’t improved the RB21 like they would have wanted to.

Max Verstappen hoping to break ominous Adrian Newey record in 2025

Red Bull have said goodbye to several key members of staff and will lose their head of strategy Will Courtenay to McLaren next year.

Jonathan Wheatley is about to take over as Sauber’s team principal and Rob Marshall is making an important impact at McLaren.

The biggest loss is Adrian Newey who this week started work at Aston Martin with an emphasis on their 2026 car and the new regulations being introduced to the sport.

Newey started working in F1 in 1981 with the Copersucar team and has gone on to win 12 constructors’ championships and 14 drivers’ championships in that time.

READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin managing technical partner Adrian Newey

The likes of Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen, Sebastian Vettel, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve can all attribute every Formula 1 title they won to a Newey-designed car.

Only Alain Prost won championships elsewhere before working alongside the genius designer and Verstappen can include himself in the group of drivers who have never tasted success without him.

However, what they all have in common is once they started working with Newey, they never won another championship.

Verstappen will hope that he can break that hoodoo this year, with even fewer guarantees that Red Bull will be a leading power in Formula 1 after this season.

Should Max Verstappen stay at Red Bull after Adrian Newey’s exit with major changes approaching

Red Bull will know they have work to do to catch McLaren this season unless they were hiding a lot of performance during testing.

Liam Lawson looked frustrated in the garage after the first day and their lack of mileage will be a cause for concern.

However, from 2026 onwards, things get even more difficult for Red Bull.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

They go into the new set of regulations having to produce their own power unit for the first time.

It’s expected that it will be an engine-heavy ruleset, meaning that if Red Bull Powertrains struggle to match the engines that Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda produce, then they could be in serious trouble.

With Newey working alongside Honda at Aston Martin, it might become more tempting for Verstappen to move on.

The designer’s track record is incredible and may be the deciding factor for the Dutchman if any doubts he has over Red Bull grow over the next 12 months.