Helmut Marko: How Red Bull changed after Dietrich Mateschitz

– 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.

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“Under him, it was a one-man show,” explains Marko in an interview with the Austrian edition of the Zeit, emphasizing: “Dietrich could decide alone, had visions, recognized lightning-fast what was good and what wasn’t.”

“He came to races and immediately developed an understanding of what was important,” says Marko, explaining: “Now there are three managing directors at Red Bull, who have to report and the like; it’s more like a typical corporate executive board.”

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, where we often saw each other,” he reveals.

For him, 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 took over responsibility for the Formula 1 project as one of the three managing directors.

“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.

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Photo gallery: The era of Helmut Marko at Red Bull

“I approached the new managing director Oliver Mintzlaff and said: ‘Look, I’m quitting’,” says Marko, explaining in this context: “For the job I did, you need passion, you have to burn for it. 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 didn’t 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, something only Michael Schumacher achieved at Ferrari. It was a huge disappointment,” says Marko, who bid farewell at the end of 2025 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 already left the racing team.

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