This weekend sees the Monza circuit hosting this round of the Formula One championship. Monza is the home track of Ferrari and is commonly referred to as the temple of speed.
Monza is the fifteenth race this season and how things have drastically changed which is really good for racing fans. At the start of the season Red Bulls dominance was all for every one to see winning 4 of the first 5 races. Over the next 10 races Red Bull managed only 3 wins with the last one coming 6 races ago.
As you can see by this weekends grid there is nowhere to hide if your car is slow and Red Bull now find themselves qualifying in 7th and 8th place respectively. Basically the pecking order has changed in only 6 months as we witness Red Bulls slide.
Straight line speed Red Bull are only 15th and 18th which is a shocking stat. You cannot win a race giving away this type of advantage as you will be lined up by others to slip stream past.
What is a little surprising is how rapid their fall from grace has been as you hardly ever see a dominant team being overtaken by 3 teams all at once. I would guess the difference between Red Bull seasons past is that they had Adrian Newey and can recall Red Bull saying he was not that important to their success.
Fast forward 5 months because Newey went on "gardening" leave in March and is only allowed to work for another team in March 2025. Whoever gets him will be very fortunate because he has prove over his career that he is the difference between a wining car and it is not the driver. Reports say he would then be working on that teams car for 2026, but I disagree as his knowledge would find extra speed and performance in any car,
Newey if he was still at Red Bull would have their ca performing at the front and winning races which is big dollars with lost championship points. He was being paid $10 million per year which is peanuts for what he was bringing to the team.
Last season the team scored 850 points which equates to $860 million in prize money and today with only 9 races left the team has a tally of 434. That is basically half of last seasons points with only 40% of the season left. Will they manage to score 600 points which is 166 points in 9 races? I have my doubts and do expect Red Bull to be overtaken by McLaren and possibly Ferrari this season. The scoring of 250 points less this season would amount to a $250 million loss in earnings which if they had been smart could have avoided all of this paying Newey what he is worth. Let us say if you were an investor in Red Bull Racing you would not be very happy with how the team has been managed.
Aston Martin see his value and reportedly have offered him $100 million over 3 years which I would still say they are underpaying him. Newey is worth $100 million per season and not over 3 years. Maybe he will have a performance bonus stipulated within his contract as he is worth every cent he is earning.