Red Bull F1 mass exodus leaves questions but Max Verstappen has the answers

Max Verstappen, Laurent Mekies, Red Bull, Belgium, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Analysis

Red Bull F1 mass exodus leaves questions but Max Verstappen has the answers

Red Bull have brighter days ahead

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Tuesday 30 June 2026 11:00

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The long and growing list of big names to have left the once mighty Red Bull F1 team in the space of less than four years is extraordinary. Given the circumstances it's almost inexplicable.

Red Bull entered 2023 having won the Drivers' title with Max Verstappen for the previous two seasons and the constructors' title the year before. What's more, as double world champions they were about to go through the entire 2023 season losing only one of the 22 races. And yet this is where the collapse actually begins.

Not the end of 2025 when both titles were lost, not a year earlier when McLaren got their papaya mitts on the constructors' title, but in the early stages of 2023 and during one of the most dominating displays by any F1 team during a season.

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All out at Red Bull

First a key Adrian Newey ally in Rob Marshall, who had been a key designer with the team since all but its first year in 2005, left to join rivals McLaren just when conversations about Red Bull winning every race were getting into full flow.

One year later, design genius Newey himself announced his exit, before joining Aston Martin in 2025. Team manager Jonathan Wheatley was also off to move to the Sauber/Audi project in 2025.

As Red Bull slowed on the track, midway through 2025 and just after the British Grand Prix, Red Bull axed Christian Horner as team principal after 20 years in the role. His bid to have greater influence in the team and company was about as well received as Red Bull's dwindling and anonymous F1 performances at this time.

Even that didn't stop the exits. Long-time chief Helmut Marko left the team at the end of 2025 while Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase was lured to join McLaren for 2028 in an announcement earlier this season.

Key Red Bull Formula 1 exits
Staff	Left	Joined
Rob Marshall	2024	McLaren
Adrian Newey	2025	Aston Martin
Jonathan Wheatley	2025	Sauber/Audi
Christian Horner	2025	Sacked
Helmut Marko	2025	Retired
Gianpiero Lambiase	2028	McLaren

Now reports claim chief engineer Paul Monaghan is so done with Red Bull that he is going to, checks notes, Cadillac.

The loss of talent form one of F1's biggest teams in recent years is astonishing, especially when you consider during this period they haven't been able to poach the same levels of talent from rival teams. Whatever was going on at late stage Horner-Red Bull, it led to people simply finding better opportunities outside of a championship-winning team and this is odd.

Many more have gone too, but above are just the biggest names and it's a huge list for a team with a trophy cabinet bigger than many people's living quarters. Now, this is where it gets weird because the future... actually looks quite bright for Red Bull.

Red Bull's top experienced talent all left in a short space of time

Why Max Verstappen could stay at Red Bull

Right now Red Bull have one big name left, and it could be the biggest of the lot in Max Verstappen. He has a clause in his contract to leave before 2028 if he is not in the top two of the championship by the summer break. Barring we have two races in a row like the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, that exit clause will become active.

Much was made of Verstappen's manager Raymond Vermeulen claiming Max 'had to have a race-winning car', but what was overlooked was him also strongly promoting the Dutchman's desire to stay with the team.

Max isn't looking for the nearest exit, he's talking to other teams like any driver assessing their options should, but he is open to staying at Red Bull if they can give him a chance to win.

The Austrian Grand Prix showed a fightback from Red Bull with their best race of the season, with the four-time world champion falling just short of a race win taken by just over a second by George Russell's Mercedes.

This is good news for Red Bull and better still for them the best is yet to come if you listen to team boss Laurent Mekies, who in reacting to the Monaghan rumours, claimed the team has many exciting talents coming through to kickstart a new era.

Max Verstappen and Laurent Mekies could lead Red Bull into a better future

Speaking at the Red Bull Ring, he said: "I think if I have to pinpoint one thing, it’s not a challenge, it’s the outstanding aspect of having been there for a year, has been the amazing people we have.

"Every day you get into deep conversations with our people, chassis side, PU side, and just the quality of the team is so high and goes so deep into the ranks that it’s probably the standout feeling for me after a year.

"And challenges, we’ve got all sorts of challenges. We have been in the incredible position to be in a title fight last year, at the point where nobody expected us to be able to be in the title fight, and then we didn’t have the time to digest the fact that we were missing these final two points, that we had to start that other race to get our first PU with Red Bull Ford Powertrains over the line.

"So, it’s been pretty much an intense 12 months, but the dominating feeling is really what an amazing group of talents in Milton Keynes and what a privilege to be with them."

Whether you are convinced by these words or not is not the point, it's if Max is convinced by the same people Mekies is.

If so there is a great chance in a new fresher Red Bull team emerging from the house Christian Horner built. With an excellent Ford engine, up-and-coming talent off the track and the best driver in F1 on it, it could soon become the place to be once more.

Gone are the negative days when Horner's Red Bull team were the 'bad guys' of F1. Verstappen has already taken Red Bull into a new era and if they manage to convince him to stay, very soon they will have queue of talent wishing to join them rather than rushing to leave.

Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen