Adrian Newey shares the time he thought Max Verstappen was ‘out of order’ at Red Bull

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Max Verstappen and Adrian Newey have enjoyed immense success together at Red Bull Racing but that partnership is coming to an end as the Dutchman struggles to hold onto the lead in the Drivers’ Championship.

Adrian Newey has finally decided where he’ll be working next after nearly two decades with Red Bull and has ended up signing a lucrative deal with Aston Martin.

Newey has watched Max Verstappen go from a teenager with immense potential to a multiple world champion during his time in Formula 1.

Ever since the Dutchman won in Spain on his Red Bull debut after a swift promotion from the Toro Rosso team, his ability has been clear to see.

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Red Bull haven’t always been expectant champions during Verstappen’s time but the current era of cars has been virtually unstoppable up until the past few months.

However, Verstappen’s first title came during one of the feistiest and most controversial seasons in the sport’s history, and speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Newey reflected on that campaign.

Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen were locked in a battle that went right down to the last lap but there were plenty of incidents along the way.

Newey has suggested that the way Verstappen drove during the Brazilian Grand Prix that season may have gone too far.

Hamilton was initially disqualified from qualifying but that didn’t stop him from going on to win the race, even though Verstappen went to extreme lengths to defend his position.

Adrian Newey thinks Max Verstappen was ‘out of order’ during the 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix

Asked if Verstappen ever shows signs of cracking, Newey said: “I think a little bit perhaps in his championship win in 2021 where the intensity, particularly after Silverstone, on track between Lewis and Max became so intense.

“I think Max had very strong feelings on that Silverstone accident and of course, he’d been the clear championship leader going into Silverstone with him out of the race and then more or less out of the race when he got hit by Valtteri, not intentional at all but still got hit and hardly scored any points.

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“So, going from easy championship leaders to now feeling a bit more pressure and Mercedes managed to find quite a lot more pace out of that car towards the end of the season.

“It’s always easier for the hunter than the hunted and Max was just starting to feel a little bit of pressure and he was in reality probably lucky not to get a penalty for his driving in Brazil.

“The Saudi [race] where they had a bit of a ding-dong, I think that was not clear that Max was probably a bit out of order in Brazil to tell you the truth.”

Could Max Verstappen and Adrian Newey work together again?

Newey isn’t the first or the last key cog in the Red Bull machine to decide to take on a new challenge in the past few seasons.

He follows Dan Fallows to Aston Martin while Rob Marshall is working his magic at a resurgent McLaren team.

Jonathan Wheatley will depart at the end of the season to take up the team principal role at Audi and while Christian Horner believes he has the talent at his disposal to promote from within, there will be question marks about that call should Red Bull continue to falter in 2025 and not hit the ground running when the regulations change in 2026.

Mercedes tried to poach one of Verstappen’s closest allies but Horner has clamped down on any more of his important staff moving on.

Martin Brundle believes Verstappen could follow Newey to Aston Martin if Red Bull are no longer a leading contender.

The next few seasons are going to be fascinating and Verstappen will hope the title fight this year with Lando Norris doesn’t get as close as his fight with Hamilton did.