Red Bull still haven’t seen the biggest consequence of losing Adrian Newey and Max Verstappen should be worried

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Red Bull have perhaps been suffering without Adrian Newey this year. Fourth in the constructors’ as the season pauses for the summer break, they’re on for their worst finish since 2015.

But in an exclusive interview with F1 Oversteer, commentator Alex Jacques flagged up one of Newey’s overlooked strengths. The legendary designer resigned in spring 2024 and started work at Aston Martin in March.

Max Verstappen has won two races and scored four pole positions this year, but the RB21 is volatile. That much was painfully clear at the Hungarian Grand Prix last time out as he finished a season-low P9.

Red Bull have thrown a raft of upgrades at their handling problems, but none have made a significant difference to their competitiveness. It’s only natural that they miss the perspective of Newey, the mastermind behind eight title-winning cars at Milton Keynes and numerous others elsewhere.

Alex Jacques says former Red Bull designer Adrian Newey has thrived during regulation changes

After that dismal race in Hungary, Verstappen said that Red Bull wouldn’t win another race in 2025. That was a sobering statement, but one that reflects their emphasis on next year’s rules reset.

The Dutchman enjoyed a historic period of dominance at the start of the ground-effect ruleset. Across the 2022 and ’23 seasons, he won 34 out of a possible 45 races.

Newey’s concept proved to be borderline unbeatable, and it took until the second quarter of last season for rivals to catch up. Back in 2009, he’d nailed an even bigger regulation change, paving the way for Sebastian Vettel’s run of four successive titles from 2010.

• READ MORE: Adrian Newey already ‘pushing the boundaries’ at Aston Martin after ‘exciting’ 2026 F1 car claim emerges

In 2014, his influence was limited because the power output of the new V6 engines had the biggest impact on determining the pecking order. But generally, Newey has excelled at spotting loopholes in revised rulebooks, and Red Bull will no longer be able to tap into that talent.

“They’re in a reset mode, aren’t they?” Jacques said. “They are now rebuilding for the future. But they’re rebuilding for a future with the world champion signed.

“I’m not sure what the mood of that team would have been like if Verstappen had walked out the door to another team, but he’s there. And when he is there, he has the ability to take a car that has half a chance to the front, and he has the ability to drive the technical direction of a team to his lofty standards.

“So they’ve got Max secured, that was the most important thing by far, and they need to rediscover their design direction. The other thing is, though, that teams are focusing on 2026, more and more and more.

“And so the last major updates of the year have been delivered for the majority of the teams because you cannot get left behind in the new regulations. So, they’re in a reset and they have traditionally, when they had Adrian Newey with the team, been very, very good at resets of technical regulation years in the past.

“Thinking back to 2009, they didn’t quite get the march that Brawn got, but they then finished the year very, very strong and then rattled off four years in a row.

“Max Verstappen is managing expectations by saying, we’re not going to win another race next year, so stop asking questions about that, effectively. And then the team will hope to regroup for 26. They’re another one who I think will be quite pleased to see the end of this rule cycle.”

Adrian Newey comments show why Max Verstappen ruled out Aston Martin move for 2026

Newey perhaps holds the key to Aston Martin’s ambitions next year. They’ve linked up with Honda and brought in Andy Cowell, the former Mercedes engine guru, to run their project.

But in Lawrence Stroll’s aggressive recruitment drive, Newey’s acquisition generated by far the most fanfare. And it’s telling that he’s been almost exclusively devoted to the 2026 car since he arrived.

In a recent interview, however, Newey revealed that Aston Martin had done ‘little’ to prepare before he joined. That has put him under ‘huge’ time pressure.

One can understand why Verstappen ruled out a move to Aston Martin as early as 2026. Despite the world-class personnel at their disposal, including two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, they’re still an unknown quantity who must live up to the hype on track.