Helmut Marko Set to Exit Red Bull After Max Verstappen Lost the 2025 Championship to Lando Norris

Red Bull is currently undergoing a period of massive personnel changes in the F1 squad. The team recently got rid of its longest-serving team principal, Christian Horner. Now, it is Helmut Marko who has exited Milton Keynes after suffering from a season filled with difficulties in Formula 1. Marko served as an advisor to the Austrian constructor until the 2025 season but will now exit the sport entirely following Max Verstappen‘s title loss to Lando Norris.

Helmut Marko and Max Verstappen are known to share an extremely close bond in Formula 1. It is believed that Marko was the one who helped the Dutchman reach the pinnacle of motorsport with Red Bull. Verstappen even had an exit clause in his Red Bull contract, which allowed him to leave the team scot-free should the Austrian leave the team as well. Though the four-time champion isn’t looking to exit the team anytime soon, it still opens up a plethora of options for him in terms of teams in the near future.

As per sources, Helmut Marko is set to completely exit from Red Bull and Formula 1 after the 2025 season. The Austrian wasn’t the best advisor at all times in the history of the team and had some phases of controversy. Marko not only had a power struggle with the constructor’s former team principal, Christian Horner, but he also made many controversial comments about F1 and its drivers along the way.

Notably, Helmut Marko was one of the major reasons behind Kimi Antonelli receiving only abuse and threats following his blunder against Lando Norris at the Qatar GP. Marko’s leaving the team certainly opens up many options for the team to fill the empty spot. Amid all the chaos being ensued at Red Bull, Max Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lamibase is also reportedly leaving his current position and working in a much senior role within the team.

Despite Helmut Marko’s contract running until the end of the 2026 season, his decision to quit the team arrived. This decision was taken following an extensive meeting with Red Bull’s leaders, primarily Oliver Mintzlaff.

Red Bull team principal reveals the team’s ‘difficult decisions’ concerning Helmut Marko

Red Bull is certainly facing a couple of difficult years in Formula 1, especially with the massive changes. Though Helmut Marko’s Red Bull exit hasn’t been officially announced, reputed media sources claim that the decision to sack the Austrian has been made.

Regardless of the news, Laurent Mekies spoke cryptically about the entire situation and how Marko’s exit was somewhat certain following the latter’s comments against Kimi Antonelli at the Qatar GP.

Laurent Mekies claimed that Helmut Marko was incredibly supportive of Red Bull, especially in their meteoric comeback on track in terms of performance. Mekies reckoned that the top management and the advisor had some difficult decisions to make, but accepted that change was a crucial part of Formula 1. Regardless of the circumstances, the Frenchman pointed out that he could only thank the 82-year-old for his long service to the Austrian constructor since its inception back in 2005.

Helmut has been incredible in how supportive he has been in helping us turning around things this year. Obviously, him and top management had quite a few difficult decisions to make in the year, and of course, we always know F1 is not a static environment. But I can only thank Helmut for the role he has played in making fundamentally better what looked like a difficult situation mid-season.

Laurent Mekies told therace.com

It is being rumored that Helmut Marko’s premature move to acquire McLaren star Alex Dunne in the Red Bull program cost the team heavily, as they had to pay some massive sums to release the driver. This, coupled with the multiple controversial things Marko said over the recent years, caused his exit to come early. Despite the current circumstances, Red Bull is gearing up for a massive year in the new regulations of the 2026 season.

Read More: Nico Rosberg Urges Lewis Hamilton to Not Quit F1 over 2025 Humiliation with Ferrari

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