Last year, everybody was wondering what Red Bull was doing, after the team won 21 out of 22 races. Fast forward to this year, as we are three races deep into the 2024 season, the same question still lingers, but for a different reason, as a major shakeup left the team without a crucial member. Just days after the rumors of Christian Horner’s attempts to buy the Red Bull Racing F1 team, Max Verstappen’s Chief Mechanic, Lee Stevenson has left the Austrian camp.

Was this a preemptive move or just Stevenson saving himself from a potentially sinking ship? While the answer to that question is hard to discern, what we do know is tensions at Red Bull are reportedly at an all-time high.

F1 veteran Lee Stevenson says his goodbyes to Red Bull and fans

Lee Stevenson’s exit, amid the Red Bull situation, does come as a surprise. After having worked with the team for nearly two decades, Max Verstappen’s Chief Engineer’s boots would now have to be filled by someone else. The former Red Bull engineer uploaded a video to his Instagram account where he said, “You won’t be seeing any more posts from me from Red Bull because today is my last day…

“It’s been an amazing 18 years and all the things that I’ve managed to achieve here with the team have been absolutely incredible. From working on the first car, the RB2, and then the RB16B, obviously the RB19… it’s been an incredible journey. I just want to say thanks to everyone here, it’s been an amazing time that I’ve had.” 

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There’s nothing concrete that can be said about what his next venture looks like. But as per a comment left on his post by someone who seems to be a former teammate of the Brit, Stevenson will be making his way to “the other end of the pits” now.

Ever since Verstappen took over Daniil Kvyat’s seat in 2016, he and Steveson have worked together. The former No.1 mechanic of Red Bull has been a part of Verstappen’s pit lane crew for all his 56 F1 race wins to date. Steveson joined as a fourth mechanic in 2006. He was promoted to Support Team Chief Mechanic, a position below Chief Mechanic in 2020.

However, after a while, he was absent from the team. It was reported that he wanted to spend some time with his family, so Chris Gent took over his role as Chief Mechanic that season. Even in this season, Gent took over Stevenson’s duties. It is speculated that he will be starting his new role at Sauber’s.

With so many major incidents in the team shaking up the F1 world to its core, Red Bull definitely will have to pull up their socks if they want to keep that solid status on the track. However, that isn’t the only news about the team that is grabbing headlines. Recently, reports surfaced that the RB team principal, Christian Horner, is set to play a larger role in the company.

Christian Horner’s meeting with the owners bears positive results

Ever since Christian Horner was caught up in a controversy, his future within the team has been questioned quite a bit, with many speculating that he might end up leaving. However, it seems like those rumors will now be put to rest as Horner is, in fact, expected to expand the scope of his role within Red Bull.

Reportedly, Horner recently had a meeting with the Thai owners of the brand and, given how well the talks went, is set to take over the RB racing team and energy drinks brand. A report by AMUS journalist, Michael Schmidt, stated. “The Thai majority shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya is fully behind the plans of team boss Horner, who allegedly wants to take complete power in both the beverage company and the motorsport empire. That support could only be shaken if a civil court finds that Horner behaved inappropriately toward an employee.” [translated by Google]

These new prospects, paired with the loss of an important team member, may just make things a little more unstable at Red Bull. Whether this absence will hurt the team or not is something that can’t be decided just yet. Perhaps we’ll have to wait some more to see how it goes!

F1 Rumor: Christian Horner Plans to Seize Full Control of Red Bull Empire With Drinks & Racing; Position ‘Strengthened’ by the Stakeholders