Karun Chandhok: Red Bull has a “big job” to stop brain drain

Former Formula 1 driver and current Sky Sports analyst Karun Chandhok believes that Red Bull’s senior leadership, including team principal Laurent Mekies, faces a big challenge to bring an end to “brain drain” within the team. 

The Milton Keynes outfit has suffered a number of high-profile exits in recent years, including Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley, Helmut Marko and Rob Marshall.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Show, Chandhok pointed to the culture at Red Bull, claiming that those working within the team need more than success on track to be motivated to stay.

“I think the culture point is really important because at the end of the day, you look at Red Bull last year, they won six out of the last nine grands prix,” the former driver said.

“The car improved a hell of a lot. They arguably had the fastest car at the back end of the season last year. At least equally fast, right? But clearly people need more than just success on track, and I think for whatever reason this brain drain has gone on, and there’s a cultural shift that has absolutely happened throughout the organisation with all the names you’ve mentioned who’ve gone.

“There’s a big job there for Laurent Mekies and the ownership from Red Bull in Austria to figure out how are we going to stop this? How are we going to stop the brain drain? How do we make ourselves attractive?”

Red Bull has faced a turbulent start to the 2026 season. With the introduction of the new era of regulations, the team is battling against reliability issues. It currently sits sixth in the constructors’ standings with 16 points, with four-time champion Max Verstappen securing 12 of those and his new team-mate Isack Hadjar scoring four.

The next race will be the Miami Grand Prix on 1-3 May.

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