Speaking to the media ahead of the 2024
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend,
Fernando Alonso shared his opinion on the situation inside
Red Bull Racing.
At the beginning of March 2024, Max Verstappen's father, Jos, revealed that the situation inside the Red Bull Racing team was very tense.
Verstappen Sr stated
it was all Christian Horner's fault. What's more, he added the team would be "torn apart" if he didn't resign. Horner retained his position of team principal.
Then, about two months later, Red Bull's key figure, chief technical officer Adrian Newey (who has been with the team for almost 20 years),
decided he wanted to leave and handed in his resignation.
This might have been the first sign that Verstappen Sr was right. Moreover,
Zak Brown and
Toto Wolff (
McLaren and
Mercedes bosses) suggested they've started receiving an unusually high amount of CVs from Red Bull personnel.
Could it be that Red Bull is imploding? Fernando Alonso doesn't think so, as he told the media ahead of this week's race at Imola Circuit:
"I don't think so. Obviously, they are dominating the sport since 2021 and when something outside the race weekend is happening, there is a lot of news generated by that team."
"They are the ones that everyone wants to beat and everyone wants to destabilise them in a way to make sure that you are able to beat them on track."
When bosses of other F1 teams start saying that many people from Red Bull are trying to leave the team, it is almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy, even if it might not have been true initially. Alonso added:
"Let's see, what happens in the future. I think the most important thing for everyone is the 2026 regulations. Adrian made the most of the current regulations, the ones that started in 2022."
"The 2014 regulations [it] was Mercedes making the most of them. You never know what is going to happen in 2026. We want to be the Mercedes of 2014 or the Red Bull of 2022. A lot of teams are hoping for that."