F1 2026: Red Bull are in a doom spiral and insider claims exodus could get even worse

Red Bull

Red Bull are in a doom spiral and F1 insider claims exodus could get even worse

Red Bull are facing a mass exodus

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 18 April 2026 17:57

An F1 insider has said that Red Bull's mass exodus of staff could continue because 'good people attract other good people'.

It was announced last week that Red Bull's head of racing Gianpiero Lambiase is going to leave the team for McLaren, becoming the Woking-based outfit's chief racing officer.

Although Lambiase will continue as Max Verstappen's race engineer and as head of racing until around 2028 before completing the switch, the announcement is the latest in a long line of key figures who have departed in recent seasons.

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Lambiase, Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley all left for rival outfits, while long-time team principal Christian Horner was sacked last July, and Helmut Marko resigned from his advisor role at the end of the 2025 season.

It has left new team principal Laurent Mekies with an almighty rebuild on his hands, and David Croft recently stated that the team are in need of a big-name signing.

The flood of departures have also coincided with Red Bull starting a new era as a power unit manufacturer, and former F1 driver Karun Chandhok has now said that he is worried that the Milton Keynes-based outfit might continue to lose staff.

Discussing Red Bull’s future on the F1 Show, Chandhok painted a worrying picture, saying: "They want to try and rebuild and I think one of the things that they've got to be worried about is good people attract other good people.

"How long before GP starts calling the other 20 people who are sitting in that engineering office and saying, 'hey you know what guys, this place down in Woking, this is a really nice place to work, how do you fancy coming down here?'

"And all of a sudden how long before that core group starts to break up? We've seen it so many times, Adrian went from team to team to team and dragged good people, Ross Brawn did the same you know and I think that's something Red Bull really need to be worried about is this thing of they need a big name signing not just for the skill set that person could bring but the people that they will attract."

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Red Bull facing crisis of identity?

With their poor start to the new regulations overhaul and the threat of a Max Verstappen exit looming over them, there's every reason to suggest that Red Bull's status as one of the 'big four' teams in F1 could come under threat in the upcoming seasons.

They look like a midfield outfit at best in 2026, with Verstappen only having picked up a best result of sixth, and the team sat down in sixth in the constructors' championship.

While Mekies' replacement of Horner last season started off well, the team now look a shadow of the outfit which dominated the 2022 and 2023 seasons with Horner at the helm, Newey's car designs sparkling on track, and Verstappen running away with 34 grand prix victories across those two seasons.

Red Bull's decision to sack Horner last year was down to the fact that they were sat down in fourth in the constructors' championship, but that's a position that they would certainly take now, and Mekies has a real job on his hands to turn their season around.

Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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F1 Red Bull Adrian Newey Helmut Marko Gianpiero Lambiase Jonathan Wheatley