Apr 29, 2024, 08:00 ET
Would a departure of Adrian Newey, the designer of the Red Bull cars, heading to Ferrari, harm or benefit Checo Pérez?
If Adrian Newey, the designer who has designed the Red Bull cars in the last 18 years, left the team, it would have an immediate and fundamental effect on the entire structure of the organization, without leaving aside the Mexican driver Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez.
It is unthinkable to believe that Red Bull would continue as it is, if Newey decided, as has been said in the European media, to abandon the team, there would necessarily be a breakdown in the organization chart and the bases, if this breakdown has not already begun.
The engineer from whose head and right hand have come the concepts, which after being expressed have materialized in the RB cars that have won seven world titles for drivers and six for constructors, seems not to be comfortable with the recent splits that have appeared as cracks in the Red Bull wall.
According to Auto Motor und Sport, BBC Sports and Autosport, Newey has decided to leave and has already informed the team and the question arises: how would this benefit or harm Checo Pérez?
Well, the loss of one of the most brilliant minds in Formula 1 will never be good news for the driver who drives his cars, that in itself would already be bad news for Checo Pérez.
Then, the breakdown of harmony in Milton Keynes that this would exacerbate and that actually began with the death of Dietrich Mateschitz, owner of Red Bull, does not contribute anything to the search for good results either.
Seen coldly, although Checo Pérez has not opted for any of the sides in Red Bull in a power struggle, meaning Helmut Marko, Max and Jos Verstappen, the CEOs of Red Bull, against Christian Horner and the Thai partner Charlem Yoovidhya (with Adrian Newey in the middle of the fray), the Mexican would clearly benefit in some way if Team Principal maintains his position despite the accusations of misconduct against him and that a former team employee still claims.
Checo Pérez owes his support and place at Red Bull to the vision of Horner, who has defended him and even fought his initial arrival over the will of special advisor Helmut Marko, who has always preferred emerging drivers to his program.
There is a theory that the contracts of Christian Horner and Adrian Newey are linked by opt-out clauses that can be activated if either of them leaves the team.
That is, if Horner is separated from his employment, Newey could have a free way to leave and vice versa.
Without Horner and without Newey, Checo Pérez has little chance of continuing, since the other extreme of Redbull’s will does not see him as a priority.
Now, if Newey leaves and Horner stays, the main team loses strength, at the same time that perhaps for Max Verstappen it could be the pretext to break the contract that binds him with the team until 2028.
That would change the panorama for Checo Pérez, since although they would not have the star designer, there is a competent department that would presumably stay (we do not know), but above all it would be the opportunity to race a still brilliant RB21 designed by Newey, but without having the Dutch demolisher as a teammate.
While it is entirely justified to give Newey much of the credit he has for Red Bull’s success, especially since the 2022 regulation changes, it is also true that Red Bull is a very well-oiled team that has a great exponent in every position, from career engineers, sports engineers, mechanics, etc.
But regardless of what Checo Pérez can get out of this troubled river, since the accusation against Christian Horner arose, it seems inevitable that something will break inside or that someone will take advantage of the earthquake to break something. Red Bull will not be the same without Newey, nor would it be without Horner, without Verstappen, without Checo Pérez or even without Marko.
In this situation there is no win-win variable, in Red Bull someone is going to inevitably lose.
