Red Bull part ways with influential advisor Marko

Helmut Marko, a mentor and major ally of four-times Formula One world champion Max Verstappen, is leaving the Red Bull team after 20 years as motorsport consultant to the energy drink brand.

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The 82-year-old Austrian, a grand prix racer in the 1970s and close confidant to the team’s founder Dietrich Mateschitz who died in 2022, also headed the Red Bull junior programme.

In that role he helped bring 20 drivers into Formula One, where Red Bull have two teams, including champions Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen.

“It is very sad news that Helmut is leaving us,” Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies said in a statement on X. “He has been such an integral part of our team and of Red Bull’s entire motor racing programme for more than two decades.”