Juan Pablo Montoya fears Red Bull are planning something you ‘cannot’ do now Helmut Marko is leaving

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Helmut Marko leaving Red Bull is a major red flag for Juan Pablo Montoya, who thinks the F1 team are now chasing the wrong “goal” after they also sacked Christian Horner.

Red Bull have undergone a huge restructuring of their hierarchy over the past two years, as many of the instrumental figures behind their successes have moved on. Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley both left the team during 2024, before Red Bull sacked Horner this July.

Laurent Mekies moved over from Racing Bulls to replace Horner as Red Bull’s CEO and team principal, while Pierre Wache filled Newey’s void at the top of their design department. Red Bull made Gianpiero Lambiase their head of racing, rather than directly replacing Wheatley.

Now, Marko is the latest to call time on their days with Red Bull, having resigned as their F1 motorsport adviser and chief of their driver academy following the end of the 2025 season. Red Bull confirmed that Marko is leaving this Tuesday, but they are not likely to replace him.

Juan Pablo Montoya fears Red Bull want to run the F1 team ‘as a business’

Marko does not believe Sebastian Vettel has “enough supporters” at Red Bull for him to now replace the 82-year-old. Instead, it is expected that Red Bull GmbH managing director Oliver Mintzlaff will now take on a greater day-to-day role in the running of Red Bull Racing in 2026.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about former Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko

But Montoya fears that Mintzlaff’s greater involvement in the Red Bull F1 team is a worrying sign for their ambitions. He believes the parent Red Bull GmbH company would be wrong to strive to run the F1 team as a business, and put making a profit above their on-track targets.

Montoya told AS: “The entire structure that was Red Bull no longer exists. And don’t look at the results without them in a year where ultimately this entire structure was still in place.

“Now, the question is what will happen to this entire structure with a new car, and a new engine, and everything new? This other engine, the Ford, will also be there next year.

“What will happen? What if Red Bull do not work out? What will happen if Max [Verstappen] leaves? Hey, where will Max go? If it comes to that, it’s more like Red Bull are changing, which isn’t easy, because they’re trying to make it a little more corporate.

“Part of the decision is that Austria wants to have more control and, from a business point of view, this makes sense, or to control a little more of what is happening in Milton Keynes.

“But if you are running a racing team, you are not running a business, so you cannot look at it as a business. You have to look at it as a racing team where the goal is not to make money.

“The goal is to win races. Then, if you win races, the money comes in to make money. And Red Bull have always done well when you don’t look at the numbers economically. They have always made a lot of money. So, it’s very complicated.”

Christian Horner is the architect of Red Bull’s future after creating their engine division

Red Bull GmbH put Marko and Horner in charge of Red Bull Racing in 2005, upon taking over the ailing Jaguar team. Newey and Wheatley also joined them at the start of 2006, and they would proceed to turn the Milton Keynes natives into one of the best teams on the F1 grid.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the 2026 F1 engine and aero regulations

Only Ferrari (15), McLaren (13) and Mercedes (9) have won the F1 drivers’ championship to date more often than Red Bull, who took Sebastian Vettel to four successive titles from 2010 to 2013 and Max Verstappen to four consecutive titles between the 2021 and 2024 seasons.

Just two points also denied Verstappen a fifth straight title during the 2025 campaign, as he finished shy of McLaren rival Lando Norris. But next season will see the start of the 2026 F1 regulations cycle, for which Red Bull will become an engine manufacturer for the first time.

Horner established Red Bull Powertrains after Honda announced that it would be leaving F1 back in 2021. While Honda later pulled a U-turn and signed a deal to join Aston Martin from 2026, Horner also agreed a partnership with Ford to secure its help with hybrid technology.

Now, Mekies is set to lead Red Bull into their new era, likely with Mintzlaff close to his side. But there are ongoing concerns about Red Bull’s 2026 F1 rules engine, with their power unit widely expected to start the year with a deficit to the engine that Mercedes have produced.