His name may not be widely known to the general public, but inside Red Bull F1 everyone knows who he is. His name is Ole Schack, the mechanic for Max Verstappen’s car, and since the days of Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, he has been the only employee who has been with Red Bull since day one. Until now: because he has asked to be allowed to leave.
According to PlanetF1, Schack wants to leave Red Bull with immediate effect, and with the shortest possible garden leave. At first glance it isn’t because he intends to sign with another team. Simply the team’s morale has fallen so much in recent months that he prefers not to continue working there.
The only employee who has been with Red Bull since the first day wants to leave
He has not missed a single race. From the Australian Grand Prix of 2005 to the Japanese Grand Prix of 2026, Ole Schack has been present at every Formula 1 race in which Red Bull has competed. But last week’s Suzuka race could have been his last, because Schack wants to go now.
After Horner’s departure in the middle of last year, and with Marko’s figure fading, Schack became Red Bull’s longest-serving employee. In fact, he had been with the outfit since the Jaguar era, always in relatively discreet roles. In recent times he had been the mechanic for Max Verstappen’s car.
But his patience has run out. As explained on PlanetF1, the oldest employee at Red Bull wants to leave. He wants to do so with immediate effect, and with the least possible garden leave. No, it is not because he intends to sign for another team. Simply he is as demotivated as the rest of the team. And there are reasons for it.
Red Bull has had in 2026 the worst start to the season since 2015. Their car is extremely heavy, and at this stage of the year they have only accumulated 16 points, two more than their sister team, Racing Bulls. They are behind Alpine and Haas in the overall standings, and what has been seen in the last races suggests it is not merely a coincidence.
But what has truly demotivated the team is the departure of the entire old guard. Since the passing of Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull’s boss, there has been an undeniable dismantling within the squad. From the quartet made up of Horner, Marko, Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley no one remains, and Max Verstappen seems to be delivering his last gasps at Red Bull.
The very Isack Hadjar, a driver recently joined to Red Bull, admitted that “the atmosphere is not good”. The decline of a Formula 1 giant.
Images | Red Bull
