Has Adrian Newey lost his magic touch?

For a team that’s been given little to no chance of winning in Monaco, the amount of pressure Red Bull are under this weekend is exceedingly high. Not only have they been locked out of the championship fight due to their continuing pace deficit, but as we’ve seen in recent days, tensions are starting to rise behind the scenes as well. Now more than ever, they could really use a good result.

Considering the team finished 2016 the only remote challenger to Mercedes’ dominance, their 2017 performance has undoubtedly failed to meet anyone’s standards.

Two race wins was the haul last year (with another going walkabout in Monaco) for Red Bull, but with another winter of development on their Renault engine and their always good chassis – not to mention the regulation change that only favoured their aerodynamic prowess, that was at the very least a baseline for what they could achieve this season.

Yet as we now know, the RB13 remains on the outside looking in, forced to watch on as not them but Ferrari get to remind the Silver Arrows that there are actually other championship-calibre teams on the grid. Now five races into the season – and firmly in the throes of the development-arms race – they remain embarrassingly behind, last time out in Barcelona seeing them finish 1:15.820 off the lead with Daniel Ricciardo. Sure, that may have been good enough for the podium, but it was the definition of third in a two-horse race.

In previous seasons justifying Red Bull’s struggles has been relatively easy – whether you were team principal Christian Horner or the girl who serves tea in the motorhome, all you had to do was point the finger at Renault. The French manufacturer’s struggles have been well documented in the V6 era, and Red Bull carries a constant reminder of their shortcomings with the badging of their engines as by Swiss watch manufacturer TAG Heuer.

However, it’s fair to wonder whether they could erase the gap this year on Renault improvement alone, or whether they’d be better served with a close examination of what’s been going on behind their own doors.

If Red Bull advisor and resident boogeyman Helmut Marko’s comments in the wake of the Spanish Grand Prix are to be believed, their aero development simply hasn’t been up to its regular standard.

And while that’s arguably not as surprising given the time Newey has been devoting to his project with Aston Martin, it has to be alarming that after a decade with him in the fold, Red Bull seemingly doesn’t have another aerodynamicist who can step up and lead the charge.

2017 marks Newey’s 30th year in Formula One, and while at 58 he is far from long in the tooth, the possibility of him stepping away completely from the sport will only continue to loom larger.

Having designed more race-winning cars than he has hairs on his head, Newey has nothing left to prove in the sport, but at least for Red Bull’s sake, it seems paramount he stay on.

That said, it’s entirely possible the RB13’s problems are able to be rectified, if not to championship-winning standard, then at least to a race-winning one.

With less emphasis on power than a rhythmic gymnastics competition, Monaco will give us the best gauge yet of their aero package, and just how much work is left to do. For their sake Red Bull need an encouraging result, lest the moaning and sniping only continue to escalate.