Montoya sees dark clouds forming over Red Bull, expects more to come

Former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya shared a particularly gloomy view for Red Bull Racing on the MontoyAS podcast from AS Colombia, saying the situation of the Austrian team is "a bit strange".

After a record-breaking 2023 season, things started to unravel for the Austrian team, struggling to fight at the front of the grid, while Adrian Newey stepped aside from all F1 operations of Red Bull after the 2024 Miami Grand Prix.

2025 saw yet more issues hinder Red Bull, which then saw the seismic sacking of Christian Horner after 20 years as team principal. After that dismissal, there has been plenty of speculation about what will happen next with Red Bull Racing.

Verstappen together with Marko | Photo: Red Bull Contentpool

Horner's sacking 'raises a lot of questions'

Montoya openly questioned what the consequences of Horner's dismissal would mean, with the former F1 driver raising the question of what it means for Helmut Marko's position within the team. "The interesting thing is: what happens now? Okay, it happened, but does Helmut stay?

"Whoever takes over that role will want to get everything under control, and at this moment, Helmut has control over everything: the drivers, the entire system. Unless Helmut was also involved in making this decision, it's super interesting, because it raises a lot of questions."

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More bad news could be coming for Red Bull

The Colombian believed the dismissal is related to the entire situation around Max Verstappen, pointing to the departure of several key figures from the team: "For me, this is 100% about Max. It all revolves around Max, in whatever direction.

"Look, they lost Adrian Newey, and they've also lost [Jonathan] Wheatley, so they've lost a big part of the leadership within Red Bull, of the whole structure. And maybe they struggle to fill those roles or to attract the right people, and maybe people simply didn't want to work under Christian or his structure at the moment."

Horner's dismissal could mean a domino effect, and Montoya does not exclude the possibility that more bad news may come out from Red Bull: "So it's complicated, a bit strange, and quite surprising. But this news rarely comes alone, I think there's more to come. This is my personal opinion, not knowing anything for sure..."