Red Bull’s influential auto racing adviser Helmut Marko is retiring from his role at the age of 82, ending a 20-year stint in which he helped Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen develop into four-time Formula One world champions.
Marko’s departure leaves Red Bull without the two main guiding personalities from their 2005 entry into F1 after the former team principal Christian Horner was ousted in July and replaced by Laurent Mekies.
Marko leaves after Verstappen missed out on winning a fifth title at Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“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,” Marko said in a statement.
An F1 driver in the early 1970s before he was blinded in one eye when a rock pierced his helmet visor, Marko was an influential figure in team politics and close to his fellow Austrian, the Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who died in 2022.
Marko’s blunt style and criticism of drivers sometimes led to controversy. In 2023, he apologised to then-Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez for comments that suggested his Mexican heritage was to blame for inconsistent results on the track.
On behalf of the wider Red Bull corporate group, Marko oversaw its driver development programme for two decades. He guided drivers such as Verstappen and Vettel through junior series to F1 debuts with Red Bull’s second team, variously known over the years as Toro Rosso, AlphaTauri and Racing Bulls.
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The former Red Bull junior drivers Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda were both largely uncompetitive this year alongside Verstappen, and another graduate of the programme, Isack Hadjar, has been promoted to that role for next year.
