Permane downplays Verstappen link in Red Bull exits

Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane has played down the idea that Red Bull’s recent stream of senior departures is fundamentally a Max Verstappen story, arguing at Spa that the trend looks more like a familiar Formula 1 cycle when a dominant team loses momentum.

Speaking to media including RacingNews365 ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, Permane said Red Bull’s situation should not be viewed only through Verstappen’s inner circle. “Of course, you don’t want to lose good people. No team wants to lose good people,” he said. “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.”

That matters because the list of departures and expected exits around Red Bull has grown into one of the biggest talking points in the paddock. Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley and Helmut Marko have all been part of that conversation, while Gianpiero Lambiase is set to join McLaren no later than the start of 2028. Chief engineer Paul Monaghan is also soon expected to join Cadillac, and Michael Manning has left after 15 seasons to join Williams.

Permane questioned whether those moves should automatically be framed as a blow to Verstappen personally. “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,” he said. “I’m not sure that everyone who has left has been hanging on to Max’s coattails.”

The issue has become harder to separate from speculation over Verstappen’s own future, which intensified after Silverstone. But the world champion said before the Belgian Grand Prix that his approach inside Red Bull had not changed despite the turbulence around the team.

“Sometimes after a race you are disappointed, but then you go home and start again with a clean slate,” Verstappen said. “In terms of my approach and how we work as a team, nothing really changes. And that people come and go, that is part of it too.”

He pointed to Manning’s departure to Williams as part of that reality and made clear Red Bull cannot treat every exit as a defining moment. “Of course, you want people to stay, but that’s life, that’s sport. You have to continue and find new talent. That is what we do.”

Taken together, Permane’s reading and Verstappen’s own response shift the focus away from personality-driven headlines and onto a more significant racing question for Red Bull: whether it can replace key experience quickly enough to stop a loss of momentum from turning into a deeper competitive problem.