Another name has peeled away from Red Bull's engineering room, and this one sat close to Max Verstappen. Michael Manning, a fixture in the world champion's garage for the best part of a decade, is off to Williams — the latest and, on current form, far from the last departure from a team that not long ago had the deepest bench in the sport.
Manning confirmed the move himself. "I'm delighted to share that I've begun a new challenge as Atlassian Williams F1 Team's Chief Engineer – Trackside Engineering," he wrote, framing it as ambition rather than escape. "Williams' engineering heritage is among the most storied in Formula 1. However, it is the ambition for the future that drew me to this role. There is a genuine hunger at Grove to return to the sharp end of the grid." He added that reuniting with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon was "a real highlight," having worked with both earlier in their careers.
He is not travelling alone. Race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase — Verstappen's voice on the radio for years — is bound for McLaren. David Mart has gone to Audi, Tom Hart is rumoured to be following Manning to Williams, and the senior losses stretch back further: Adrian Newey to Aston Martin, Jonathan Wheatley to Audi, with Rob Marshall and Will Courtenay already at McLaren.
For Sky Sports commentator David Croft, the depth of the drain is the alarming part. "They've lost a lot of staff now. And not just the headline staff, but people underneath as well," he said. Croft was careful not to call it panic. "It's not people deserting a sinking ship, but it's people thinking that their success in their careers can lie elsewhere."
Karun Chandhok sees a cultural problem that trophies alone won't fix. "Clearly, people need more than just success on track," he said. "There's a big job there for Laurent Mekies and the ownership from Red Bull in Austria to figure out 'how are we going to stop this?'" His prescription is to buy reputation, not just skill. "Good people attract other good people," he argued. "They need a big-name signing, not just for the skill set that person can bring, but the people that they will attract."
The obvious question is what all this means for Verstappen, contracted to 2028 but understood to hold performance clauses that could free him sooner. Chandhok isn't convinced the exodus is the trigger. "I don't know if that will necessarily be the reason Max leaves," he said, adding that a break has always looked more likely: "I suspected Max would take a sabbatical from F1. I thought he'd do it in 2026 or 2027."
Seventh in the standings and still winless, Verstappen is watching the people who built his four titles scatter across the grid. Whether he stays to rebuild or joins the outflow may become the defining question of Red Bull's winter.
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*Originally published on [NewsFormula.one](https://newsformula.one/article/red-bulls-brain-drain-deepens-as-another-verstappen-ally-bolts). Visit for full coverage.*