Brown issues ‘destabilised’ Red Bull verdict

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has suggested Red Bull has been “destabilised” by the major exits announced at the team this year.

Red Bull has endured a difficult run of form of late with McLaren now sitting just eight points behind in the fight for the constructors' championship.

The reigning world champions have suffered a series of key losses this year, with chief technical officer Adrian Newey set to depart the company in early 2025, having already taken a step back from car development.

Last month Red Bull also confirmed Jonathan Wheatley would exit his sporting director role to become the team principal of the Audi F1 programme.

With Red Bull going six races without a victory, Brown believes its on-track product is being hurt by behind-the-scenes decisions.

“Ultimately, I don't know what's going on there,” Brown told Sky F1. “I think Adrian Newey, I bet it'd be nice to have him around the conference room table right now, looking at how to improve the car.

“Obviously Jonathan Wheatley is still there but he's moving on, and Rob Marshall [former Red Bull chief engineering officer], who joined us.

“So you've got three of the most senior people that were at Red Bull, huge contributors, that can't not be a loss.

“We all have bad pit stops. But it does seem to be that things are a bit more destabilised than they've certainly been recently.”

Brown hails McLaren growth

McLaren's drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were left disappointed with the team's result in Italy which saw it cross the line in second and third respectively.

While Brown admitted hurt over narrowly missing out on the win at Monza, the American highlighted pride in its growth since the start of last season.

“When you start first and second, you just [need to] think about where we were at the start of 2023 and here we are, second and third,” he said.

“A little bit of a sting, of course, but I think we need to look and go, 'that's 12 podiums in a row'.

“We’re eight points out of the constructors championship, Lando closed the gap [to Verstappen]. So not a bad result.”