The controversy which surrounded Pink Bull crew principal Christian Horner earlier this yr “had an influence” on their employees, in response to a long-serving ex-F1 engineer.
Julien Simon-Chautemps, whose F1 roles included three years as Kimi Raikkonen’s race engineer, believes the allegations round Horner’s behaviour influenced the departure of Pink Bull’s long-serving chief technical officer Adrian Newey.
Horner was cleared of inappropriate behaviour in the direction of a crew member by an inside investigation. The worker’s attraction in opposition to the choice was dismissed in August.
A few of Pink Bull’s rivals linked the departure of Newey, extensively thought to be F1’s finest designer, to the investigation of Horner. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown stated in Could Newey is “a really high-integrity particular person” and “I’m not shocked he’s shifting on.” Horner firmly denied claims the 2 had been related.
Simon-Chautemps downplayed the influence of Newey’s departure, declaring different highly-rated designers stay on the crew comparable to technical director Pierre Wache. “I’m not going to attempt to diminish Adrian’s fame and what he has achieved within the sport, nevertheless it’s honest to say that I imply F1 within the nineties is just not F1 anymore now,” he informed the Enterprise of Profitable. “It’s not a single supervisor anymore.
“Lots of people have stated it, however I’m a agency believer {that a} Method 1 crew wants an excellent technical director, however he’s not doing the whole lot on his personal. Adrian had lots of people round him, excellent folks in Pink Bull, I’m pondering of Wache as a technical director, he has a whole lot of actually good guys in aero, and I doubt he would have been capable of win all these championships on his personal. So sure, a particularly necessary man within the organisation, however he’s not the one reply to the success.”
He additionally doubts the crew’s stoop in efficiency for the reason that mid-season is a consequence of Newey’s departure, which was introduced in Could.
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“Pink Bull had been profitable comparatively simply, very simply final yr. The principles haven’t modified that a lot for ’24. In case you have a look at the event path of an F1 crew it’s fairly flat as a result of, sure, you may enhance and compete, nevertheless it’s fairly tough to make an enormous enchancment.
“They clearly tried to enhance an already excellent profitable automotive and so they’ve most likely gone the improper means at one level or one other. They launched a brand new flooring [in Japan]. It didn’t go the correct means, however Max saved profitable, in order that they form of brushed it off. However truly, Perez was struggling much more. In order that, I believe, they most likely took a improper path on that.”
Nevertheless Simon-Chautemps stated his sources on the crew point out the allegations surrounding Horner had a “unfavourable influence” behind the scenes.
“Add to that the whole lot that occurred at the start with Christian and what occurred internally, for having been a part of the crew, you’re speaking about 1,000 folks, for certain it has influenced folks negatively and I wouldn’t be shocked to listen to {that a} massive a part of Adrian’s determination was what occurred with Christian at the start of the yr and the way the entire story was handled.
“I’m not right here to guage and it’s not my place to guage, however I do know lots of people in Pink Bull and I do know for a incontrovertible fact that it had an influence on how folks labored and what they considered and for certain it had a unfavourable influence.”
Pink Bull has additionally introduced the departures of different key members of its operation this yr. Sporting director Jonathan Wheatley will transfer to Sauber subsequent yr and head of technique Will Courtenay is heading to McLaren. Newey later confirmed he’ll be a part of Aston Martin.
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