Verstappen torpedo Red Bull departures exposed
Martin Brundle delivers his most pointed verdict yet on why Red Bull's key figures keep walking out the door.
Brundle names it: the Verstappen torpedo Red Bull departures theory
Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 broadcast, the veteran pundit did not hold back. Brundle said: “If he might be springing out of Red Bull… my goodness, they wanted to torpedo the management of Red Bull, Team Verstappen, and they did that very well indeed. They started with Christian and it’s just carried on from there.”
Brundle also made clear he still rates Max Verstappen very highly, saying: “Max Verstappen is the best driver on the grid, in my opinion, at this time. He’s still the fastest and the most consistent and makes the least mistakes.”
But he added: “I think they did a bit too good a job of wanting to move some people out of the way at Red Bull did Team Verstappen.”
It is a remarkable assessment. Brundle is essentially saying the departures were not just a coincidence. They were the result of a coordinated effort to clear the decks.
Who has actually left Red Bull?
The list of exits is long and damaging. Over the past 18 months, Red Bull has lost a significant amount of institutional knowledge and leadership. At the very top, Christian Horner was removed after two decades in charge. Not long before that, legendary designer Adrian Newey confirmed his exit after nearly 20 years with the team. Then came Helmut Marko, the architect behind Red Bull’s driver programme, who stepped away after more than two decades.
Sporting director Jonathan Wheatley left after 19 years, and senior figures such as strategy chief Will Courtenay and multiple engineers also moved on to rival teams.
More recently, the situation has continued to worsen. Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan is set to leave Red Bull, sources have told ESPN. Monaghan has been one of the key cogs of the race team, which he joined in 2005. His likely destination is Cadillac.
The departure of Max Verstappen’s longtime race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will add fuel to the inferno building over the four-time world champion’s immediate F1 future. Lambiase, better known as “GP,” will join McLaren as chief racing officer no later than 2028. It is, as Brundle explained during the Sky Sports F1 broadcast, simply every driver manager’s job to look around at the market.
What the Verstappen torpedo Red Bull departures mean for the team
The scale of this exodus is hard to overstate. The all-conquering Red Bull team that Verstappen won four straight world titles with between 2021 and 2024 has crumbled in alarming time. The headline item was the shock sacking of team boss Christian Horner last July.
Multiple sources have told ESPN that the atmosphere within the current Red Bull team has been poor, a feeling only exacerbated by the team’s slow and frustrating start to the new F1 rules cycle.
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies is trying to stay positive. He insists that Max Verstappen’s future in Formula One will not be swayed by staff departures at Red Bull. Despite the series of high-profile exits, Mekies asserted that Verstappen still has faith in the Red Bull project, saying: “Max wants a fast car, always wanted a fast car, and he completely trusts us.”
Zak Brown shutting down Verstappen-McLaren talk and the wider speculation about where Verstappen might end up.
Verstappen’s own future still in the balance
Verstappen’s deal runs until the end of 2028 but sources have told ESPN he has performance-related clauses in his deal which would likely be triggered this season due to Red Bull’s poor start to the new regulations, and those would allow him to exit his deal at the end of 2026.
Martin Brundle has also told Verstappen to quit Formula 1 “or stop talking” after the Dutchman threatened to retire at the end of the 2026 season. The four-time champion has made no secret of his frustrations.
With the British Grand Prix weekend in full swing at Silverstone, all eyes remain on whether Red Bull can show signs of recovery before any exit clause deadline hits. The Verstappen torpedo Red Bull departures story is far from over. Follow Red Bull Racing’s official site and Formula1.com for official updates as this situation develops.
