Max Verstappen is sure that Red Bull will not be affected by the impending departure of Adrian Newey, placing his trust in the rest of the senior technical team.
Chief Technical Officer Newey will leave Red Bull after 19 seasons at the end of 2024, and has been heavily-linked with a move to Ferrari, with Aston Martin also keen on his services having made a big-money offer.
2025 Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton believes that potentially working with Newey would be a "privilege" as Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez echoed the three-time world champion's thoughts when he added that Red Bull's success was not down to a single person.
The Dutchman added that he would have preferred Newey to stay, but that the departure does nothing to alter his future with the team, which has been uncertain at times this season given the on-going political turmoil at Red Bull.
"Nothing really changes in the day-to-day operation, Adrian has been incredibly important from the start, and then the roles shifted a little bit," Verstappen told media including RacingNews365 in Miami.
"You have to evolve as a team, and as a person as well, and of course I would have preferred him to stay, but I also know that we have incredible quality in the technical team - that's what they've shown already in the last few years.
"So I saw that he is leaving, but we also trust our qualities. My future is still the same.
"I don't need to convince anyone [to stay], because, at the end of the day, I don't need to convince anyone, and if someone wants to really leave, then they should leave.
"That's also what I wrote to him. It's not like we don't talk anymore, but if you think that is the right decision for yourself and your family, or you seek a different challenge, you have to do it.
"Formula 1 is a shark tank and everyone thinks about themselves at the end of the day, I know that, I am not stupid."
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Red Bull's other technical staff
Newey in his role as CTO has been the public face of Red Bull's technical department, but figures such as Technical Director Pierre Wache, Head of Aerodynamics Enrico Balbo and Head of Performance Engineering Ben Waterhouse are often cited as having more hands-on impact on the cars.
Verstappen believes Newey's departure might not be a "negative".
"I cannot speak for everyone else at the moment, and who knows, maybe with Adrian leaving, [it will be good for the team]," he added.
"It might not always be a negative, and this is not something bad with Adrian, but you see that in a lot of different companies and sports, when somebody has been part of the team and suddenly this person leaves, it is not always a negative thing.
"Maybe it promotes young talent through because there will never be another Adrian, but that is fine because it would be quite boring if everyone was like Adrian.
"It is very important to appreciate what he has done for the team, but also for us, it is very important to just work with the people that we have available - and they are very good at what they do.
"But I also trust that the technical team outside of Adrian is very, very strong, and have shown for the previous few years how competitive the car is. From the outside, it looks very dramatic, but I think if you actually know what is happening inside the team, it is not as dramatic as it seems.
"People in the press are making a lot of things up at the moment because they don't understand how the roles are within the team."
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