Why Marko’s out of Red Bull + What happened in the Abu Dhabi test
The Race F1 Podcast
The Race Media Ltd
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Edd Straw and Scott Mitchell-Malm reconvene in a much quieter Abu Dhabi to discuss the news that Helmut Marko will leave Red Bull at the end of 2025, ending a run of more than 20 years as the Formula 1 team’s motorsport advisor. But why is Marko out now, and what does this mean for Red Bull Racing - and Max Verstappen - going forward?
Edd and Scott also unpick everything that happened in the post-race Abu Dhabi test, which effectively saw two tests running in tandem, with each team having one 2025-spec car for young driver testing and one so-called 'mule' car for 2026 tyre testing.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic. |
| 0:02.7 | The race is on, and the 2025 season may be over, but the news keeps coming with Helmut Marco's |
| 0:18.3 | departure from Red Bull officially confirmed and a full day of |
| 0:21.5 | testing with 20 cars in Aber Dhabi. But why is Marcos time finally up? And what did we learn about |
| 0:26.9 | next season with today's running? I'm Ed's draw and with me for one more day at the Yass |
| 0:31.4 | marina circuit is Scott Mitchell Malm. Well, Scott, as was hinted at on Sunday, the Aber Dhabi Grand Prix, Helmut Marco will not |
| 0:40.4 | continue as Red Bull Motorsport Advisor in 2026, ending more than two decades with the company. |
| 0:45.7 | Are you buying the way this has been framed as his decision? |
| 0:48.6 | Not in the slightest. Sometimes you see a press release in a statement, a set of quotes from |
| 0:53.5 | senior personnel, |
| 0:54.8 | and you think that broadly tallies with my understanding of the situation. |
| 0:59.6 | This is not one of those times because the terminology being used is very much that this was Helmut's decision. |
| 1:07.2 | He's just, he's, he wanted to step down. |
| 1:12.1 | He approached Red Bull, |
| 1:17.3 | Oliver Minslav, who is the CEO of special projects and new investments. I was, CEO corporate projects and investments. Well, corporate projects, special projects, what's the |
| 1:21.6 | difference? Anyway, um, yeah, some, uh, the suggestion being that like Mintzlav was, uh,av was saying that, you know, when Marco, |
| 1:30.7 | when Marco came to him with this, he, he just had to accept it because he realized that it's |
| 1:36.5 | what Helmut really needed to do. I forget the exact nonsense way that it was framed. It was |
| 1:40.5 | laid on way too thick. Now, there's two different aspects to this, which |
| 1:44.6 | obviously we're going to get into. There is obviously the Helmut Marco contribution to Red Bull, |
| 1:48.9 | the legacy that he leaves in terms of the success that Red Bulls had, the drivers he's brought |
| 1:53.2 | in, especially Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, who were both fiercely loyal to Marco. |
... |
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