Helmut Marko hits back at links between Adrian Newey’s exit and RB20 slump

Helmut Marko has dismissed claims that Adrian Newey’s impending exit is the reason for the RB20’s downfall in competitiveness.

Red Bull’s chief technical officer shocked the F1 paddock earlier this year by confirming he would leave the team that he has been a part of since 2005.

Newey has not had an active race-to-race role since Miami, and is on course to sign for an F1 rival - reportedly Aston Martin - next year.

Max Verstappen, meanwhile, is on an unprecedented six-race winless run as Christian Horner admits Red Bull do not know the cause of their car’s lack of pace.

“Of course, the opinion is circulating among fans that our regression has something to do with Adrian Newey's departure,” Marko wrote for Speedweek.

“But that's not true. Because Newey was no longer involved in all the details of vehicle development in the spring.

“What cannot of course be denied is that Newey is Newey, a man with incredible experience, which has always distinguished him.

“But our problem lies elsewhere. The examples of Mercedes and, to a lesser extent, Ferrari have shown how teams find it difficult to deal with these winged cars.

“But I remain optimistic: We have a very broad technical team and I am convinced that we can solve this problem.

“So the central question now is: How do we go about finding the good vehicle balance from the first part of the season?

“Max Verstappen said in Monza that he didn't need 20 points more downforce if it made the car undriveable.

“So we have to dismantle it and hopefully find the point where the car was in balance.

“If we can do that, the car's behaviour will become predictable again, the drivers will gain new confidence and can contribute ideally again.

“Of course, this is a difficult task because we have added a lot of new parts to the car since then.

“Simply put – we need to figure out where we technically took a wrong turn.”

The remarks from Red Bull’s are incredible considering they dominated the early part of this year, just as they have since the start of 2022.

In fact, Marko’s words sound almost like Toto Wolff’s confusion as Mercedes struggled through their bad patch.

Perhaps worryingly for Red Bull’s longer-term hopes, they are set to part ways with genius car designer Newey.

But, the team are insistent that the timing is coincidental, and Newey’s newfound distance from their F1 project is not to blame for their under-performance.

“I think we would have had all of these issues because the issues were already there, and one man’s input could never be so dramatic so quickly,” Horner said at Monza.