Lando Norris
McLaren
Mercedes
Red Bull
Ferrari
Williams
Racing Bulls
Aston Martin
Haas
Alpine
Helmut Marko leaving Red Bull at the end of 2025 means the F1 team will have parted with their four long-time leaders across the past two years, including Christian Horner.
The 2026 F1 season will now see Red Bull start a campaign without either of Horner, Marko, Adrian Newey or Jonathan Wheatley for the first time since their debut in 2005. The task of leading the team now falls on the trio of Laurent Mekies, Pierre Wache and Oliver Mintzlaff.
Red Bull GmbH managing director Mintzlaff is set to embrace a bigger day-to-day role in the running of Red Bull Racing in the wake of Marko leaving. Mekies replaced Horner as the CEO and team principal of RBR this July, while Newey and Wheatley both quit at the end of 2024.
Marko believes it is now the right time for him to leave Red Bull, after 20 years as the parent company’s motorsport adviser and 24 years overseeing the brand’s driver academy. Red Bull confirmed that Marko is leaving the F1 team this Tuesday despite having a contract for 2026.
Helmut Marko is a bigger Red Bull ‘legend’ than Christian Horner as he is the ‘father’ of F1 icons
Tim Coronel expects he will miss Marko “a lot” now the Austrian has confirmed he is leaving Red Bull, which the Dutchman cannot say about Horner. Red Bull fired Horner after 20 years as their team principal in July, which ended the Briton’s internal fight for power with Marko.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about former Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko
Christian Horner has done more for Red Bull in Formula 1 than Helmut Marko – prove us wrong
Coronel even thinks Marko is the bigger Red Bull “legend” than Horner, as he is the “father” of F1 icons such as Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. A total of 20 Red Bull Junior Team products have graduated in F1 to date, with Isack Hadjar the 11th to also race for Red Bull.
“I might miss Marko a lot,” Coronel told RacingNews365: “I really do think he is the father and birthplace of new, talented F1 drivers. I don’t miss Horner. I think Marko is more of a legend, a much more remarkable man.
“Maybe also because he is a bit older and you have more respect for that. I also came across him sometimes when I raced. I can only bow down to this man.”
Helmut Marko developed champion drivers, while Christian Horner built the Red Bull factory
Marko built a ruthless reputation for how he managed the Red Bull Junior Team, as young drivers either won or risked being dropped. More than 80 drivers have to date been a part of the Red Bull Junior Team, but just 18 have ever raced for one of Red Bull’s two F1 teams.
READ MORE: Who is Christian Horner? All you need to know from Red Bull to net worth
Which Red Bull Junior Team product was Helmut Marko wrong to deny an F1 career?
Red Bull even overlooked talents like Antonio Felix da Costa, who many feel deserved a shot in F1, if a brighter talent was emerging. Verstappen usurped Da Costa to debut in F1 for Toro Rosso in 2015. Red Bull also axed Alex Albon as a junior, then gave him his F1 debut in 2019.
While Marko was always firm with how he managed Red Bull’s driver academy, his methods yielded results. Vettel and Verstappen each won the F1 drivers’ championship four times for Red Bull, which makes the Milton Keynes natives the fourth-most successful team in history.
Horner played a major role in building Red Bull up from the ashes of the ailing Jaguar outfit that the Austrian energy drink brand took over in 2005. The Briton built the culture in their factory, where Newey’s design genius was just as key to most of the team’s successes in F1.
Red Bull rank fourth for all-time F1 Grand Prix victories (130) behind Ferrari (248), McLaren (203) and Mercedes (131). They also rank fifth for pole positions (111), fifth for fastest laps (102), fifth for podiums (297) and fourth for laps led (7,501) after 417 F1 Grand Prix entries.
Receive exclusive F1 news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
