Formula 1 News: Is Jos Verstappen right about Horner & Red Bull? (Update)

Red Bull team boss agrees with our assertion below, that a top team like Red Bull losing a few employees to poachers is normal.

Horner highlighted that only a few of the 2000 team members have decided to depart. Speaking to Channel 4, as quoted by GPblog.com, he said:

“Adrian Newey has been on the brink of retiring for 10 years! So we had to be prepared for that, and I believe we’ve got strength and depth. He’s chosen to continue and continue elsewhere. And of course, Jonathan, likewise, a long-term member, but they’re two more higher-profile names. The reality is that’s just two people out of 2000 people that we have within the group.”

“We’ve recruited, I think, close to 250 people during the last 12 months, across the project, into powertrains, into the brand-new engine shop that we’re building. We don’t talk about the over 200 people we’ve bought from Mercedes. There’s a lot of focus on the two people who are leaving because they’re slightly more public facing,” and the bias British F1 media likes to try and bring down the Red Bull team with negative stories.

Jos Verstappen says that the departure of several key members of the Red Bull F1 team is precisely what he predicted earlier this year if team boss Christian Horner remained at the helm.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

But is he correct?  Let’s discuss.

Horner was accused by a female employee of inappropriate and controlling behavior, but was subsequently cleared of wrongdoing after an internal investigation by an independent lawyer, while a misconduct appeal was also dismissed.

“It can’t go on the way it is, it will explode,” Verstappen said back in March

Last week, it was announced that Red Bull’s head of race strategy Will Courtenay is leaving to join rivals McLaren as the team’s new sporting director.

Others to leave include:

• Chief Designer Adrian Newey left for a similar role at Aston Martin. He was not happy that Red Bull could not employ him full-time on the F1 team because of budget cap restraints. Aston Martin offered him a full-time position
• Sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, will join Audi’s Formula 1 project as team principal after 2025 – a promotion
• Rob Marshall, Chief Engineer Officer, left in 2023 and is now with the McLaren team
• Long-time Max Verstappen mechanic Lee Stevenson, who acted as the Dutchman’s first mechanic since 2016, left in March for more money.

“This is what I warned about,” Jos Verstappen responded to Autosport at the East Belgian Rally last weekend, when confronted with the news of another veteran team member leaving Red Bull.

“The team then says: ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter, we have someone else [who we can put on that position].’ But it’s too many people now [who decide to leave].

“Max gets questions about it every time and so on. So yeah, I think it’s just not good, what’s happening at the moment.”

Analysis

They all left Red Bull for more money and/or a promotion, not what turned out to be a nothing-burger sexting scandal. Their departures have absolutely nothing to do with Horner and the alleged sexting scandal.

When a team is winning and dominating like Red Bull had been, employees become a target of other teams, thinking they can steal some of Red Bull’s secrets.

These same employees think they can get paid a higher salary by moving elsewhere, and they probably can because not all teams are up against the cost cap limit like Red Bull is.

It is quite natural for this to happen to the top teams.  Poaching of Mercedes employees was commonplace when they were at the top.

No one wants to poach an employee from an underperforming team. That was the case with McLaren for many years, but now that they are the top-performing team, the poaching of their employees will begin in earnest.

There are rumors that he has a handshake deal with Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff for his son to drive for that team starting in 2026. However, Max has a contract with Red Bull through 2028, but it likely has some exit clauses if Red Bull cannot provide Max with a winning car.

Is Jos’ goal to denigrate Red Bull, perpetuate the brain drain of key employees, and open up an exit clause for his son to move to Mercedes or Aston Martin for more money?

Are other teams willing to pay father Jos a ‘finders fee’ if he can convince his son Max to leave Red Bull and drive for one of them?

Conclusion

Jos Verstappen is not correct about why key people are leaving Red Bull and he knows it.  He is trying his best to get his son to leave the Red Bull team. His goal appears to make Christian Horner look bad in the eyes of the F1 world, media, fans and more importantly, his son Max.

Why. Because another team is likely to pay Max Verstappen far more than Red Bull is currently paying him (over $50 million per year).

And if Max gets a big raise, so does his father, who acts as his co-business manager along with Raymond Vermeulen.