Budkowski: Disagreements within Red Bull have reached a breaking point.

      Marcin Budkowski, who formerly served as executive director of Alpine F1 and now works as an expert for the broadcaster Viaplay, offered his version explaining the reasons for Helmut Marko's departure from Red Bull.

      It became known shortly after the end of the season that Marko, who had served as motorsport advisor since 2005, was parting ways with the company. He was also responsible for Red Bull's junior programme, and it was thanks to him that such talented drivers as Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen came into Formula 1.

      The 82-year-old Marko left his position after, for various reasons, Adrian Newey, the most successful racing designer in Formula 1 history, and Christian Horner, who had led the team for two decades, had parted ways with Red Bull Racing.

      Speaking on the RacingNews365 podcast, Budkowski suggested that the end of the collaboration with Helmut Marko was predetermined by changes in the team's leadership structure.

      "Relations between the new Red Bull leadership, Oliver Mintzlaff, and Helmut were tense, although that's purely my conjecture," Budkowski said. "Marko in recent years was working directly within the team, and that was in part due to support from the Verstappen family. And as far as I understand, things reached the point where the difficulties within the team hit a limit.

      There were too many disagreements. Mintzlaff and the Austrian side want to obtain more power and to have greater influence over all decisions, that is without doubt. Likely it reached the point where the Austrians and Mintzlaff no longer wanted Helmut to remain with the team, and he too, of course, did not want to continue working under such conditions.

      For Marko it is important to have full freedom in decision-making; only then will he be satisfied, and I don't think that was granted to him. Perhaps he decided to leave himself, perhaps he was pushed out of the company — in any case, in my view, things reached the point where those relations suited neither side."