Adrian Newey admitted a "lack of experience" may have contributed to Red Bull's struggles at the end of the 2024 season after expressing concerns about the car's drivability.

Red Bull enjoyed a record-breaking 2023 as Max Verstappen won a third world title, helping the team to the constructors' championship as the squad won all but one race.

And they picked up where they left off the following year, with Verstappen winning seven of the first 10 grand prix before the team suffered a significant drop-off.

The Dutchman won just two of the final 14 races, while Sergio Perez scored just nine points in the last eight grand prix weekends of the season before ultimately leaving Red Bull.

McLaren, who eventually won the constructors' title, and Ferrari rapidly caught up to Red Bull, finishing above them in the standings, though Verstappen was able to hold off Lando Norris to retain his world title.

Newey, who is set to begin his new position at Aston Martin on March 1, was asked why Red Bull were unable to retain their early-season dominance.

"Obviously part of that was McLaren, in particular, and Ferrari, as well developing their cars and doing a very good job of developing their cars," Newey told Auto Motor und Sport.

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"I think Red Bull, from what I could see, the car was – already the '24 car and through the very last stages of '23 as well, I would say – starting to become more difficult to drive. And, of course, Max could handle that if you liked. It didn't suit him, but he could handle it.

"Checo [Sergio Perez] couldn't, so you also started through [the] '23 season to see more of a difference in performance between the team-mates, Max and Checo. That carried into the first part of '24, but the car was still quick enough to be able to cope with it.

"It's something I was starting to become concerned about, but not many of the people in the organisation seemed to be very concerned about.

"From what I can see from the outside – but I don't know – the guys at Red Bull, this is no criticism, but I think they, just perhaps, through lack of experience, kept going in that same direction, and the problem became more and more acute to the point that even Max found it difficult to drive."