Helmut Marko, a mentor and major ally of four-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen, is leaving the Red Bull team after 20 years as motorsports consultant to the energy drink brand.

The 82-year-old Austrian, an F1 driver in the 1970s and close confidant to the team¡¯s founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who died in 2022, also headed the Red Bull junior program.

In that role he helped bring 20 drivers into F1, including champions Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen.