(Motorsport-Total.com) – When Helmut Marko left Red Bull at the end of 2025, it was no longer the same project as 20 years earlier, when the Bulls first entered Formula 1. According to Marko, a decisive moment was the death of Dietrich Mateschitz in 2022.
Read more McLaren announces «completely new MCL40» — and tempers expectations
“Under him, it was a one-man show,” Marko explains in an interview with the Austrian edition of Zeit, emphasizing: “Dietrich could decide alone, had visions, recognized lightning-fast what was good and what was not.”
“He came to races and immediately developed an understanding of what was important,” says Marko, who explains: “Now there are three managing directors at Red Bull, who have to report and the like, it corresponds more to a typical corporate top management.”
Accordingly, something also changed for Marko, who, according to his own statement, was friends with Mateschitz. “Mateschitz owned a beautiful alpine house in the mountains of Styria not far from the Red Bull Ring, we often saw each other there,” he reveals.
For him, a friendship is “when you can rely on each other, when appointments and agreements are kept,” says Marko. This close relationship no longer existed with Mateschitz’s successor Oliver Mintzlaff, who, as one of the three managing directors, took over responsibility for the Formula 1 project.
“Red Bull has entered a new era, Dietrich Mateschitz’s successors have begun with their style of management,” says Marko. This may also have played a role in his decision to leave Formula 1 at the end of 2025.
Read more Charles Leclerc believes in the world championship title with Ferrari
The era of Helmut Marko at Red Bull
“I approached the new managing director Oliver Mintzlaff and said: ‘You know, I’m quitting’,” says Marko, who explains in this context: “For the job I did, you need passion, you have to burn. If you no longer feel that, it becomes tedious.”
Officially, Marko does not attribute his departure to the new Red Bull leadership. Ultimately, the reason was the disappointment “that we did not win the world championship in 2025. From that, I wanted to draw my own conclusions,” he clarifies.
“It would have been our fifth consecutive world championship, only Michael Schumacher achieved that with Ferrari. It was a huge disappointment,” says Marko, who at the end of 2025 bid farewell as one of the last faces of Red Bull’s most successful years in Formula 1.
After Mateschitz’s death, Christian Horner and Adrian Newey, among others, had previously left the racing team.
Read more 2026, Verstappen & Co.: The big interview with Stefano Domenicali