Helmut Marko confirms Red Bull exit and admits ‘something had been lost’

Under the artificial glare of Yas Marina’s floodlights, Helmut Marko watched the team he helped build lose a world title by just two points. A few hours later, in the quiet of a Dubai hotel, Red Bull’s long-time consigliere decided his own race was run.

This week, Red Bull and Marko jointly confirmed that the 82-year-old will step down from his motorsport advisor role at the end of 2025, drawing a line under more than two decades that yielded 8 drivers’ titles, 6 constructors’ crowns and 130 grand prix wins. The announcement read like a dignified retirement. Marko’s own words reveal something more fragile: the sense that the Red Bull he knew had slipped away.

Speaking to Austrian broadcaster ORF, as reported by Motorsport.com, Marko tied his decision directly to Max Verstappen’s late‑season defeat to Lando Norris.

“We had a difficult season this year… We were 104 points behind in Holland… We lost the championship by two points… Even after the race, I felt that something had been lost.”

— Helmut Marko, speaking to ORF, quoted by Motorsport.com

That comeback from a 104‑point deficit to a title defeat by the narrowest of margins was, in Marko’s telling, both a last great charge and a sign that his own chapter should close. He stayed on in Dubai after the finale, then called Red Bull CEO Oliver Mintzlaff for a face‑to‑face meeting before a planned championship dinner. There, with the Thai shareholder also present, he made his decision.

“If we had become champions, I would have thought it was a good time to take a step back. But now it’s exactly the opposite. We lost the championship. It’s always a good time to stop… This was my decision.”

— Helmut Marko, speaking to GPblog, quoted by PlanetF1

Publicly, Red Bull leans on that framing. In the official statement, Marko struck a tone of pride and closure.

“Narrowly missing out on the world championship this season has moved me deeply and made it clear to me that now is the right moment for me personally to end this very long, intense and successful chapter.”

— Helmut Marko in a Red Bull statement, via PlanetF1

It is no coincidence that his exit comes on the eve of new 2026 chassis and power‑unit regulations, with Red Bull embarking on its first fully in‑house engine project. Marko has said the rule change makes this a logical handover point. But according to detailed reporting from Motorsport.com, Crash.net, The Race and F1i, the emotional trigger of Verstappen’s defeat sits atop a deeper shift inside the organisation.

Since the death of Red Bull co‑founder Dietrich Mateschitz in 2022, the balance of power moved from the old guard towards a more corporate structure in Salzburg. Marko, once untouchable, found himself answering to Mintzlaff and a closer‑managed Red Bull GmbH. Analysis pieces from The Race and Crash.net describe simmering tensions: Marko’s outspoken comments about Sergio Perez’s nationality in 2023, his role in the Kimi Antonelli abuse storm after Qatar 2025, and, crucially, a disputed attempt to sign junior driver Alex Dunne that reportedly went against shareholders’ wishes.

For two decades, Marko ran the Red Bull junior programme with near‑absolute authority. In the new order, driver plans and PR messaging were pulled tighter to headquarters. Motorsport.com notes that what once felt like freedom now required alignment; Marko himself admitted he had to “feel comfortable” to continue. In Abu Dhabi, that comfort finally evaporated.

The human cost of his exit is felt most keenly by the drivers he backed when they were just names on a timing screen. Sebastian Vettel, the first Red Bull world champion Marko delivered, was blunt in his assessment.

“I wish Helmut all the best for his further path and a well‑deserved retirement. He is the architect of the success of Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso.”

— Sebastian Vettel, speaking to F1‑Insider, quoted by RacingNews365

Then there is Verstappen, the teenager Marko hurled straight out of Formula 3 into Toro Rosso and, soon after, into a Red Bull seat. For years, Verstappen’s contract even contained a so‑called “Marko clause”, linking his future to the Austrian’s presence, a provision analysis pieces from F1i and Crash.net say has since been neutralised. Verstappen has already committed publicly to race with Red Bull through at least 2026, and multiple outlets report he is broadly satisfied with Laurent Mekies’ leadership after Christian Horner’s departure.

Yet the bond is undeniable. Marko told ORF that flight problems kept Verstappen from that Dubai dinner, so their farewell came by phone instead. The tone, he said, was anything but routine, with “a certain melancholy in the air” as they revisited first wins, first titles and a partnership that reshaped modern Formula 1.

Look down the pit lane now and you can see how much the landscape has changed. Horner is gone, Adrian Newey has departed, long‑serving sporting director Jonathan Wheatley and key strategy figures have moved on. As The Race and F1i point out, the architects of Red Bull’s 2020s dominance are being dispersed just as the sport rewrites its technical rulebook.

Marko insists he won’t simply reappear in another team’s colours. He talks instead of business interests back home and the occasional visit to a grand prix as a spectator, not a power broker. The paddock will sound different without his gravel‑voiced one‑liners cutting through the PR fog, and Red Bull will feel different without the man who relished making the ruthless calls others shied away from.

When the lights went out on Verstappen’s title defence in Abu Dhabi, it also dimmed on an era. By admitting that “something had been lost” inside Red Bull, Helmut Marko wasn’t just talking about a championship. He was acknowledging that the team he helped forge in his own image is evolving into something new – and that, for a racer of his generation, walking away was the last masterclass he had left to deliver.