Max Verstappen link to relentless Red Bull exits questioned

Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane has questioned the number of high-profile departures from Red Bull in recent times and their link to Max Verstappen.

The exodus from Red Bull has been significant over a period of time, and includes the likes of Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley and Helmut Marko, whilst Verstappen's long-time race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will join McLaren no later than the start of 2028. Chief engineer Paul Monaghan will soon be joining Cadillac.

There have also been a range of additional engineering figures who have worked with Verstappen over the years who have also departed, the latest being Michael Manning, who spent 15 seasons with Red Bull but has now joined Williams.

Addressing how his team would be affected if so many major names departed, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, Permane said: "Of course, you don’t want to lose good people. No team wants to lose good people.

"One of the things that I think we’ve seen over the years is when a team has been very successful for many years, and then maybe they’re not so successful, you do tend to lose people.

"People feel they’ve completed that challenge there and they want to move on to other teams."

Turning his attention to what has happened at Red Bull, Permane added: "I know a lot of the headlines are being made that ‘Another Verstappen ally leaves Red Bull’. I’m not quite so sure it’s quite like that.

"I’m not sure that everyone who has left has been hanging on to Max’s coattails.

"But simply, you don’t want to lose good people. You want to retain good people, and you want to have a working environment that makes people want to stay with you.

"I don’t think that’s different to any team up and down the pit lane."