Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen has been dealt a huge blow with another change made to his Red Bull pit wall for the 2025 F1 season.
The Dutchman, who has already lost team-mate Sergio Perez and design guru Adrian Newey, will now be without his ‘start guy’.
The four-time world champion‘s raw pace and aggressive driving style always meant the 27-year-old was destined for the top.
The main factor behind Verstappen’s sustained dominance has been his ability to extract more out of his car than most.
A case in point would be to look at Perez’s form, who finished eighth in the drivers’ standings – 285 points adrift of Verstappen, who topped the table in the same Red Bull vehicle that ended third behind McLaren and Ferrari overall.
All F1 stars work with their engineers to tune the car to their liking, with Verstappen’s team proving unrivalled on track in recent years.
However, according to Dutch outlet De Telegraaf, one of the four permanent engineers, Michael Manning, will exit his role.
The Irishman is reportedly keen to end his presence trackside and move to another position within the Red Bull team.
Manning, who previously worked with Sebastian Vettel, arrived at Red Bull in 2011 before linking up with Verstappen five years later.
He has since become a key member of Verstappen’s inner circle alongside race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, performance engineer Tom Hart and lead trackside power unit performance engineer David Mart.
Manning’s role as ‘control engineer’ ensures responsibility for the Belgian-born racer’s starts.
Standing starts were a leading area of Red Bull’s dominant 2023 campaign – and have become a key aspect of Verstappen’s arsenal.
Most F1 wins without pole position
Michael Schumacher – 51
Lewis Hamilton – 44
Alain Prost – 33
Max Verstappen – 31
Sebastian Vettel – 22
The 63-time Grands Prix winner already has the fourth-most wins having not started from pole position in history thanks to his speed off the line.
The average reaction time of an F1 driver ranges between 0.2-0.3 seconds – which is only slightly slower than an Olympic sprinter’s 160 milliseconds.
A video released by Red Bull of Verstappen conducting a reaction test in 2023 showed him clocking an astonishing 0.09 seconds.
Remarkably, that’s not the fastest-recorded reaction time in F1 history.
Instead, that feat was an astonishing 0.04 seconds, achieved by Valterri Bottas during the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix.
Nevertheless, Verstappen’s quick starts in 2024 proved crucial in overtaking Lando Norris regularly at Turn 1 which ultimately helped rack up enough points to stave off the Brit’s title challenge.
Manning’s absence will only compound his recent fears that he won’t be able to claim a fifth successive title this season.
Verstappen endured a five-month winless streak as his team slipped to third overall and yet still wrapped up another drivers’ championship with two races to go.
Legendary designer Newey has since joined Aston Martin, with chief Verstappen alley Helmut Marko also linked with an exit.
Red Bull have already installed Liam Lawson as Verstappen’s new teammate but the latter has warned more changes will be needed.
He told De Telegraaf: “If we continue like this, I will not be champion next year. It is that simple. We really have to make steps to be competitive next season. We all know that.
“I trust that the team can fix the balance problems of last season. And certain things that we could not change last year will be changed for next year.
“We know that it has to be better over the kerbs, bumps and in the slow corners. Those are generally our weak points. If we are still beaten, it will be on the basis of pure speed.”