Gerhard Berger, a well-known associate and long-time supporter of the Red Bull brand, believes that the discord within the top F1 team this season has unmistakably "left its mark."
Max Verstappen, currently leading the championship, managed only a P6 finish in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix after starting from P7.
As the performance of the 2024 car continues to decline, the triple world champion's comments have become increasingly anxious.
"If we don't change anything on the car, it's going to be all bad from now until the end of the season," remarked the Dutch driver.
Verstappen, at 26, insists the issue goes beyond just lacklustre handling and speed.
"I didn't like the strategy at all and the pitstop was really crap," he candidly told Viaplay after the race at Monza. "We also had to drive with less power for most of the race because we had a problem."
"Yes, actually nothing went well in the race. The whole weekend, actually," Verstappen added.
He particularly criticised what he perceived as a lack of attentiveness from his engineers. "My battery was pretty much empty when I was fighting with Lando (Norris)," Verstappen said.
"Then I had to go to a certain setting, and at some point, I asked 'Can I go back?' They said 'Oh yes, go back'. Then I think 'what's that? You have all the data all the time, right? I shouldn't have to ask them."
"We were in no man's land, but we have to stay on top of things. Otherwise, I'd better just stay home," Verstappen insisted. "There are a lot of things that need to be said," he added, when questioned if he would be addressing these concerns with team management.
When asked about his chances of winning more races in 2024, the championship leader - whose lead over McLaren's Norris was reduced from 70 to 62 points on Sunday - replied, "As it is now, not a single one."
Verstappen has downplayed the effect of the leadership changes at Red Bull this year and Adrian Newey's departure, but he admits he is completely perplexed.
"Last year we had the most dominant car ever, and we've basically turned it into a monster. A very dominant car becomes an undriveable car in - what - six or eight months? That's very strange to me," he stated.
"In the current situation, we are going to go badly everywhere. At the moment, both championships are unrealistic."
A silver lining for Verstappen is that his points advantage would have diminished even more at Monza if Oscar Piastri, in the sister car, hadn't been instructed against overtaking Norris on the first lap.
"In a way, this helps in terms of damage limitation," Verstappen said, "but that is not how I want to look at the championship."
"I've said a lot about the problems now - now it's up to the team to come up with a lot of changes to the car. We have to turn the whole car inside out."
F1 icon Berger, who was the first athlete backed by Red Bull and previously co-owned the Faenza-based junior team, reluctantly concedes that the internal chaos at Red Bull Racing this year has likely taken a toll.
"Max is still a special figure in this business," the 65-year-old Austrian was quoted as saying by Kronen Zeitung at Monza.
"He usually makes the difference. But even he can't do much at the moment."
"It has to be said quite clearly that all this bickering in the team over the last six months has obviously left its mark. The fire alarms must be going off now," Berger concluded.
