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Helmut Marko will leave Red Bull at the end of 2025 – here’s why and what it means
Helmut Marko will leave Red Bull at the end of 2025, ending a run of more than 20 years as the Formula 1 team’s motorsport advisor. The move has been framed as Marko’s decision “to step down” but his exit is understood to have a complicated backstory. Marko, who is 82, was key to the creation of Red Bull’s F1 team and its rise to being one of the championship’s powerhouses. He steered major decisions for Red Bull Racing and then the second team Toro Rosso, and was in charge of the junior programme that brought Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen into F1. Despite the success Red Bull enjoyed with Marko working alongside long-time team principal Christian Horner, the relationship between Marko and the Red Bull organisation had become strained. It began to change after the death of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who Marko was extremely close to, in late 2022. This prompted a gradual but clear shift in how Red Bull’s parent company oversaw its F1 team, sparking significant clashes and leading to Marko’s departure at the end of the season.
