(Motorsport-Total.com) – How many departures can Red Bull still cope with? After having already lost big names like Adrian Newey, Christian Horner, Jonathan Wheatley or Helmut Marko, Gianpiero Lambiase recently announced that he would leave the team for McLaren by the end of 2027 at the latest.
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Expert Karun Chandhok explains on Sky: “Laurent Mekies and the owners of Red Bull in Austria face a big task. They have to find out: How can we stop this? How can we stop the ‘brain drain’? How do we make ourselves attractive?”
Because at the moment, from an outsider’s perspective, Red Bull does not give the impression of being the racing team one would want to switch to. “Right now, you want to recruit people from Mercedes,” explains Chandhok, referring to the Silver Arrows’ good start to the season.
“And I think one of the points they have to think about is that good people attract other good people,” says Chandhok about Red Bull, explaining: “Adrian Newey moved from team to team, bringing good people with him. Ross Brawn did the same.”
The Red Bull departures of recent years
This means: In order to become attractive (again) for new employees, the team needs a figurehead, in his opinion. “I think that’s something Red Bull really has to worry about,” says Chandhok. Because currently, the opposite could be the case for the Bulls.
Why are so many people leaving Red Bull?
Regarding Lambiase’s impending departure, Chandhok says, for example: “How long will it be until ‘GP’ calls the other 20 people in the engineering office and says: ‘Hey, you know what, guys? This location here in Woking is a really great place to work. How about you come here?'”
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“They need a prominent new signing – not only because of the skills this person brings, but also because of the people they will attract,” Chandhok therefore emphasizes with regard to the Bulls. Another expert, Ralf Schumacher, sees it similarly.
In the podcast Backstage Boxengasse on Sky, he explains that Red Bull must now try to “get new people very, very quickly.” The six-time Grand Prix winner sees the budget cap, among other things, as the reason for the so-called “brain drain.”
“At some point, the team is no longer able to retain the good engineers because they naturally receive offers from left and right like crazy,” he explains. Lambiase is also said to have received a very lucrative financial contract from McLaren.
“Everyone also wants to cash in on last year’s success,” believes Schumacher, who emphasizes: “I understand that too.” Nevertheless, it is now up to Red Bull to fill these gaps as quickly as possible.
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