Nico Rosberg shares Red Bull “brain drain” fear as Adrian Newey leaves

Nico Rosberg is worried about a “brain drain” of key Red Bull staff as Adrian Newey exits.

The departure of chief technology officer Newey will be early next year although his day-to-day responsibilities with the F1 team have already greatly diminished.

The announcement of his huge loss has coincided with a remarkable dip in form for Red Bull, who have been dominant since the start of 2022.

“Adrian is perhaps the greatest genius we’ve seen in F1 in the past 40 years,” former F1 champion Rosberg told Sky Sports.

“I’m sure he would have had a positive impact now if he was still involved.

“It’s more difficult without him.

“But, also, Adrian is the role model and the figure that everyone looks up to in the engineering and aerodynamic department.

“When he leaves, it accelerates the brain drain. They are like: ‘If he’s not here maybe I want to take on a new challenge, because it was with Adrian that I liked to work with’.

“It spirals…”

Jonathan Wheatley will also leave his job as Red Bull sporting director to become the Audi team principal, while Rob Marshall went to McLaren a year ago.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has cheekily claimed he has received multiple CVs from top Red Bull staff.

On-track, Christian Horner’s team are struggling more than anyone predicted.

Horner has even admitted they do not understand why their RB20 is struggling so much.

Max Verstappen was sixth at the F1 Italian Grand Prix, and Sergio Perez was eighth.

Both McLarens, both Ferraris and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished ahead of Verstappen.

Rosberg noted: “Red Bull never mess up their pitstops, they are perfect. It was symbolic that even the pitstop went wrong.

“What on earth is going on there?
“Max was 38 seconds behind the Ferrari. Isn’t that incredible? And they don’t know why!

“It’s a turn of events that no-one could have predicted.

“I think they’ll come back into the mix in the next couple of races. But they have lost their way.”