Regardless of its historic interval of dominance in Formulation 1 between 2022 and 2023, Red Bull has since regularly seen its key figures depart, typically beneath murky circumstances. Here’s a look again in any respect the foremost departures from the crew over the previous three years.
Rob Marshall, chief engineer
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photographs
The announcement of Rob Marshall’s transfer to McLaren was made again in Might 2023, forward of the 2024 season. This was the primary main departure from Crimson Bull lately, as he had spent 17 years with the Milton Keynes-based crew. Having joined in 2006, he served alongside Adrian Newey as chief designer till 2015, taking part in a key function within the crew’s successes within the early 2010s.
He was subsequently promoted to chief engineer and performed a component within the crew’s resurgence, whereas additionally turning into concerned in different firm tasks. “We’ll miss his affect,” Christian Horner stated following the announcement of his departure to grow to be chief technical officer and chief designer on the Woking-based crew.
An affect that many thought-about essential to the current successes of McLaren, as a part of his new partnership with Peter Prodromou (who was Newey’s quantity two), himself a former Crimson Bull crew member.
Lee Stevenson, chief mechanic
Picture by: Dan Istitene / Getty Photographs
He could not maintain as excessive a place as others on this checklist, however he’s a well-known face to the general public : Lee Stevenson introduced in March 2024 that he was leaving Crimson Bull, after 18 years with the crew.
Beginning his profession in F1 at Jordan as a mechanic, he joined Crimson Bull in 2006 and from there he rose by means of the ranks to grow to be the chief mechanic on Daniil Kvyat’s automotive in 2015.
In early 2016, when Verstappen changed the Russian, the rapport between the 2 was glorious and he retained this function till 2020, when, at his request, he was promoted to the place of deputy chief mechanic, earlier than being appointed chief mechanic in 2023.
Though he subsequently left the Crimson Bull, he didn’t abandon his function: he turned chief mechanic on the Sauber crew, earlier than being promoted to crew supervisor at Audi in 2026.
Adrian Newey, chief technical officer
Picture by: Alexander Trienitz
Having already contributed to the world titles received by Williams and McLaren within the Nineteen Nineties, Newey selected to affix Crimson Bull in 2006. It took him simply three years to assist the crew grow to be a title contender with the RB5, the automotive that laid the foundations for the Crimson Bull’s first championship-winning line-up between 2010-13.
He then fell sufferer, like your complete crew, to the failed transition to the V6 turbo hybrid period, because of Renault’s shortcomings and, at instances, to his personal chassis division and an absence of coordination. The remainder of his profession at Crimson Bull noticed him take a barely extra backseat function, considerably weary of the dominance of engines over aerodynamics, whereas collaborating in tasks outdoors of F1.
In the end, it was not till the swap to Honda engines that Newey regained the chance to take part within the design of title-fighting vehicles – with Pierre Wache as full technical director from 2018 onwards – reaching success between 2021 and 2024.
Nonetheless, though he had a contract extension with Crimson Bull in 2023, the Horner affair and the inner energy battle that got here to gentle in early 2024 prompted him to go away the crew in Might of that yr. Symbolically, the announcement of his departure – the timing of which was criticised by Newey himself because of its coincidence with the thirtieth anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s demise – got here on the very second the RB20 was starting to point out indicators of weak spot.
In early 2025 he joined Aston Martin as managing technical associate, primarily centered on the crew’s preparation for the brand new guidelines period the next yr.
Jonathan Wheatley, sporting director
Picture: Crimson Bull Content material Pool
Though much less outstanding than Newey, Wheatley has nonetheless been a key determine in his crew’s successes. Arriving in 2006, after serving as chief mechanic at Benetton after which Renault, the Briton was initially crew supervisor earlier than turning into sporting director in 2014.
On this function, which he held from the pitwall, he notably oversaw the well-oiled machine that Crimson Bull’s pitstop crew had grow to be, whereas managing dealings between the crew and the FIA.
In 2024, aged 57, he wished to take his profession to the subsequent stage, however Christian Horner’s presence as crew principal made inside development tough. He subsequently needed to look past the Crimson Bull fold, and it was Sauber – which might grow to be Audi in 2026 – that Wheatley determined to affix.
Nonetheless, after simply two rounds on the helm of the crew beneath the four-ringed producer’s banner, Wheatley left and is now tipped to affix Aston Martin.
His departure from Crimson Bull had prompted a shake-up in the hierarchy and a series of internal promotions on the time, notably with a extra vital and broader function being given to Gianpiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen’s race engineer.
Will Courtenay, head of technique
Picture by: Mark Thompson / Getty Photographs
Having joined Jaguar again in 2003, Courtenay remained with the crew regardless of its takeover by Crimson Bull. A method engineer after which analyst between 2005 and 2010, he turned head of race technique in June 2010, a job he held till the tip of final yr earlier than becoming a member of McLaren.
The announcement of his departure got here shortly after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, with Courtenay making ready to take up the function of sporting director at McLaren.
Nonetheless, not like within the case of Wheatley, who joined a crew that was not in the identical league as Crimson Bull, the Austrian outfit was not significantly eager to fast-track the method. Courtenay was nonetheless allowed to affix Woking at first of 2026, regardless of a contract that ran till the center of the yr.
Christian Horner, CEO and crew principal
Picture: Crimson Bull Content material Pool
On board from day one with the arrogance and help of Crimson Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz, Horner was simply 31 when he joined F1’s ‘Piranha Membership’ in 2005, alongside legends similar to Jean Todt, Ron Dennis and Frank Williams.
Regardless of his inexperience at this stage, he shortly laid the foundations for his crew’s future successes by surrounding himself with a reliable and devoted crew; the star signing of this era was, after all, Adrian Newey, a designer already broadly considered probably the greatest of his technology.
The gamble paid off pretty shortly, as Crimson Bull turned a pressure to be reckoned with by the late 2000s, navigating the regulatory adjustments launched in 2009 with nice ability. Between 2010 and 2013, the crew and its driver Sebastian Vettel swept up each title.
Horner would then impose his administration and communication fashion, whereas guiding his crew’s rise to the ranks of F1’s superpowers. After a tough interval as a result of swap to hybrid turbo engines – albeit one marked by sporadic successes – the Austrian producer would bounce again by taking a brand new gamble: an alliance with Honda.
The drivers’ world title was regained in 2021, earlier than the crew dominated the 2022 and 2023 seasons. The latter yr proved significantly spectacular for Crimson Bull, which dominated F1 like by no means earlier than with Max Verstappen.
But it was instantly after this marketing campaign that the dominant crew constructed by Horner started to crack, with the outbreak of the scandal over alleged inappropriate behaviour in the direction of a feminine worker. Whereas he was cleared of wrongdoing and remained in his function after an inside investigations, tensions will rise throughout the crew in opposition to a backdrop of an influence battle, while efficiency declines. Not sufficient to lose the drivers’ title in 2024, however sufficient to completely weaken Horner who had been on the helm of the crew for over 20 years.
His shock departure, introduced in early July 2025, was accompanied by that of two different senior figures on the crew, far much less outstanding than different personalities however who had been near Horner: Oliver Hughes, the group’s director of promoting and business affairs, and Paul Smith, the group’s communications director.
Dr Helmut Marko,motorsport advisor
Picture by: Kym Illman / Getty Photographs
Having all the time held the bizarre place of ‘advisor’ accountable for motorsport throughout the vitality drink large, Dr Helmut Marko has thus been one of many guiding figures at Red Bull and behind the rise of the Austrian empire within the F1 paddock, alongside the opposite long-standing members talked about above.
Serving as each Mateschitz’s right-hand man and his insider on the crew, he was given the complete confidence and freedom required to concurrently set up the crew’s junior programme, which notably enabled the development of younger drivers by means of the ranks to F1.
His best achievement will undoubtedly be the profession of Sebastian Vettel, the primary Crimson Bull-backed world champion (2010-13), after had supported him in his rise by means of the junior ranks previous to his arrival at Toro Rosso. The case of Max Verstappen , additionally a four-time world champion with Crimson Bull (2021-24), is totally different as a result of the Dutchman had already made a reputation for himself earlier than becoming a member of the fold, which he solely did because of Marko’s assure of a full-time F1 seat from 2015 onwards.
Past these two drivers, the system for figuring out, coaching and selling drivers to F1, established across the possession of two groups within the championship – Crimson Bull because the flagship crew and ToroRosso/AlphaTauri/Racing Bulls because the junior crew – has enabled a plethora of promising drivers to enter F1, a few of whom are nonetheless within the championship regardless of having left the crew (Carlos Sainz, Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly).
Marko’s affect at Crimson Bull was not, nonetheless, restricted to the junior programme, and he performed a number one function as a supervisor, notably alongside Horner, in supporting the crew’s main successes. In recent times, he had been a key determine alongside Max Verstappen and his entourage within the inside energy battle, to the extent that he was overtly backed by the driving force in early 2024 through the turmoil attributable to the Horner affair and had his contract prolonged till 2026.
Over time, his administration fashion and public statements have usually sparked controversy, one of the crucial current controversies being his conspiracy theory-laden remarks in opposition to Kimi Antonelli after the Qatar Grand Prix, which triggered a wave of on-line harassment in opposition to the Italian and compelled Marko – a uncommon prevalence – to backtrack.
It was in opposition to the backdrop of Crimson Bull’s confirmed decline – regardless of a last-ditch effort on the finish of final season – that he claimed to have made the choice himself to go away the crew after the 2025 finale. Nonetheless, some sources on the time prompt it was a choice imposed on him, due each to the Antonelli affair and an unauthorised try to recruit Alex Dunne into the Crimson Bull fold.
Gianpiero Lambiase, head of race engineering
Picture: Crimson Bull Content material Pool
After beginning his profession in 2005 at Jordan, spending 10 years with the crew beneath its varied names (Midland, Spyker, Power India), he joined Crimson Bull in 2015 as Daniil Kvyat’s race engineer. When Kvyat was demoted to Toro Rosso and changed by Verstappen, Lambiase retained this function.
His collaboration with the Dutchman would result in a direct success on the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, remaining with Verstappen has he charged to his 4 world titles 2021-24.
Throughout his time at Crimson Bull, he regularly rose by means of the ranks internally, taking over the function of chief race engineer in 2022 earlier than being promoted to the place of racing director within the wake of the reorganisation following Wheatley’s departure.
In early April 2026, whereas his future throughout the organisation had already been known as into query because of hyperlinks with different groups, it was introduced that he could be leaving Crimson Bull on the finish of his contract in late 2027 to affix McLaren from 2028 within the function of chief racing officer, reporting to Andrea Stella.
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