Max Verstappen has played down reports that Adrian Newey is steadily stepping away from Formula 1.
Red Bull's famous technical boss has been part-time for several years now, but that involvement looks to be diminishing even more.
Former team driver Robert Doornbos said recently that Newey is working "much less" than before, as he gets involved in the Aston Martin Valkyrie project and now an 'Extreme E' team with Jean-Eric Vergne.
"I think when an entire organisation revolves around one man and that one man is not completely there, you will experience problems," Doornbos said.
But Verstappen says it is not true that Newey's role at Red Bull is getting ever smaller, even if the 2021 rules threaten to make it harder to innovate.
"I think he is even more involved now," the Dutchman told his official website.
"He is also very involved in 2021, but everything is limited in terms of options. That is not ideal, but I think he is even more involved now compared to when I joined Red Bull."
