Red Bull warned they’re ‘going to suffer’ as Laurent Mekies cannot fill one void Helmut Marko left

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Laurent Mekies helped to turn Red Bull’s form around after the team sacked Christian Horner, yet his job has now got harder with Helmut Marko leaving at the end of 2025.

The 2026 F1 season will mark a step into uncharted territory for Red Bull, as they will start a term without either of Horner, Marko, Adrian Newey or Jonathan Wheatley for the first time. Mekies moved over from Red Bull’s second team Racing Bulls to replace Horner in July 2025.

Red Bull sacked Horner after 20 years as team principal in response to their declining results and to bring an end to his fight for power against Marko. But Marko has now decided to also leave Red Bull after 20 years as their motorsport adviser, plus leader of their driver academy.

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Tom Coronel fears no one at Red Bull has Helmut Marko’s ‘courage’ to force change

Red Bull GmbH managing director Oliver Mintzlaff is expected to have a bigger day-to-day role in Red Bull Racing from 2026 with Marko stepping away. Mintzlaff and Mekies will guide Red Bull into their new era, while Guillaume Rocquelin is in line to lead their driver academy.

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

But Tom Coronel claims Red Bull are going to “suffer” from Marko leaving the F1 team for “a while”, as there is now no one in Milton Keynes who has the 82-year-old’s “courage” to force through change. Red Bull also owe all of their success so far to what Marko did for the team.

“Who is the most disruptive person at Red Bull?” Coronel told RacingNews365. “By making decisions, daring to say things and daring to force things. How a can manufacturer became a Formula 1 winner is really down to just one person.

“And then you can say, ‘You’re building a whole team’. That’s true. But someone who has the courage to do things? That’s still Helmut.

“Who has that now? Who’s going to do that there? And that’s going to be a very difficult one. They’re definitely going to suffer from that for a while.”

Helmut Marko is leaving big shoes to fill at Red Bull

Tim Coronel also matches his brother Tom’s belief that Marko is the bigger Red Bull “legend” than Horner, given the host of talented drivers he developed in their academy like Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. Vettel and Verstappen both sealed four of Red Bull’s eight titles.

Rocquelin will now hope he can continue to nurture Red Bull’s prolific production line, from which Arvid Lindlad will be Marko’s final graduate after earning an F1 seat with Racing Bulls for 2026. Hadjar is the final Red Bull graduate to join their main team under Marko’s watch.

Mekies and Mintzlaff will also now have to prove that Red Bull can survive without Marko’s ability to force through changes at a time when the 2026 F1 regulations pose another huge hurdle. Next term will see F1 introduce its biggest overhaul of the technical regulations yet.