Long-time Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko’s future with the company’s Formula 1 team is unclear going into 2026, with paddock rumours suggesting a retirement is imminent.
Marko has been a central figure in Red Bull’s F1 outfit from its beginning in 2005 and has played a prominent role overseeing company’s famous driver programme.
Four-time world champions Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel are both talents Marko can boast as ones he helped to bring into the sport.
Asked about his future after Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Marko told Servus: “It’s not in doubt, I will have a discussion and then I see what I do. It’s a complex [set] of different things. I have to sleep over it and then will we see.”
Sources have told ESPN the situation is a bit more complicated than him simply deciding what to do next.
Helmut Marko’s (right) future with Red Bull is unclear. Mark Thompson/Getty Images
The Austrian, 81, has always been employed in a largely undefined role at the team and it is understood he does not have a formal contract with a traditional job description set in stone.
This loosely-defined role has become more magnified since the internal changes at the Formula 1 team this year.
Marko and Verstappen’s father Jos were instrumental in the departure of ex-Red Bull boss Christian Horner in July, a move which brought Red Bull GmbH – the wider energy drinks company, based in Austria — into a much more prominent role in overseeing the race team.
The Austrian side of the business have grown concerned over the freedom Marko has.
One example of this is how he operates with the media — Marko has always been a loose-cannon with the interviews he gives and is known in the Formula 1 paddock for giving interviews whenever he wants, even when specifically instructed not to, and rarely sticking to things agreed on to say by Red Bull’s press team when he is permitted to speak.
Marko quotes regularly float around the F1 news-sphere as a result. One in particular recently appears to have pushed Marko’s free-wheeling role at the team into sharper focus.
Sources told ESPN Marko’s recent comments about Mercedes teenage rookie Kimi Antonelli “moving over” for Lando Norris at the end of the Qatar Grand Prix caused alarm internally.
In the aftermath, Antonelli was subjected to online abuse and death threats, which prompted Red Bull to release a statement saying the insinuation about Antonelli had been incorrect.
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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had called Marko’s comments “brainless.”
Speaking about Marko’s future on Sunday evening, Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies hinted at an ongoing review of the Austrian’s role with the team, but stressed that Marko’s influence internally had been huge in propelling Max Verstappen and Red Bull back into title contention down the stretch.
“Helmut has been incredible in how supportive he has been into helping us turning around things this year,” he said.
“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.
“You always adjust your organisations. It applies to technical, it applies to sporting and it’s completely normal that we review how we can improve the way we operate all the time.
“I’m not saying that specifically for Helmut, but I’m saying that in general, we are in an environment where we always challenge each other and look for the next steps, no matter how small it is in trying to work together.
“But I can only thank Helmut for the role he has played into making fundamentally better what looked like a difficult situation mid-season.”
