Max Verstappen’s father has reacted with alarm to the now-confirmed news that Adrian Newey is leaving Red Bull.
F1’s most famous and respected technical mind will leave the dominant team that has been riddled by internal turmoil in 2024 "in the first quarter of 2025" - almost a full year before his contract was due to run out.
"I feel now is an opportune moment to hand that baton over to others and to seek new challenges for myself," said the 65-year-old in the official statement.
Former F1 team owner and boss Eddie Jordan, who Newey credits for being his "manager", hinted in a recent podcast that his friend will probably step away from F1 for a time.
But Newey is strongly linked with a move to join Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, although Aston Martin and - more quietly - Mercedes are also tipped as potential destinations.
It is reported that Newey will still attend selected grands prix in 2024, but amid rumours that Verstappen could be spooked by the news, his father and co-manager Jos said on Wednesday: "This is what I was afraid of.
"It is important that key personnel remain on board," the former F1 driver told De Telegraaf. "This is not the case now. Newey is leaving - at the beginning of the year it seemed that Helmut (Marko) would be fired.
"It’s not good for the future of the team."
Auto Motor und Sport believes Newey has successfully negotiated that he will not have to serve lengthy ’gardening leave’ if he does join another team.
"This means that he can throw himself straight into developing a car for the new 2026 regulations," the German magazine claims.
Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport, meanwhile, said Red Bull’s technical director Pierre Wache will not be following Newey out of the exit door.
And De Telegraaf reports that Newey will be in Miami this weekend, even though he is no longer employed by Red Bull’s Formula 1 team. Instead, he will take part in promotional events to promote the RB17 hypercar.