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Are Red Bull expanding or not? This is going on at Verstappen's team
- Ludo van Denderen
'You see there is no vacancy at Red Bull Racing?' No doubt many Red Bull Racing fans thought such a thing when De Telegraaf published that the Austrians have recruited 60 new members - lured away from the competition. But is it really such great news or is there a catch?
To answer the latter: yes. No doubt Red Bull whispered to the Dutch newspaper that sixty new staff members have been recruited. That these personnel come from rival teams - with Mercedes in particular being mentioned - undoubtedly happened to appeal to their supporters, after all the stories about an alleged exodus at Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson's team.
The small 'but' to the Red Bull news
What is not reported, however, is the number of staff who left. Indeed, in Formula 1, there is always a huge turnover of people, with teams constantly changing. Whereas Red Bull recruited 60 people, but surely plenty of people left too. When asked, Mercedes or McLaren will say the same thing: 'Yes, we brought in sixty people too from rivals'.
Moreover, don't forget that there is a cost cap in Formula 1. That means a maximum amount can be spent each year, including on personnel. Since a team like Red Bull Racing - as well as rivals Mercedes and Ferrari - reach the red line of the cap, it is simply impossible to bring in additional staff. They replace others, as is the case with other teams. A team like Aston Martin, though, is busy boosting staff numbers, but their were not at the cost cap limit until recently - and therefore they had the room to grow.
Not all 60 to work on Verstappen's car
Sixty new members are not necessarily sixty people who directly have a huge impact on Verstappen and Liam Lawson's cars. They could also be people for the marketing department, or someone using a 3D printer to make parts.
It is a fact that some well-known names left Red Bull recently or announced that they would do so. Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley or Will Courtenay, to name a few. For now, all these people are/were replaced by staff members who were already employed by Red Bull. So will the sixty newcomers will be in high-level positions? Time will tell.
In any case, Red Bull hope that the newcomers bring necessary experience with them. Precisely, lack of experience is what Adrian Newey cited as the reason for the team's problems after the designer left the Austrian team almost a year ago.
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