{"id":816079,"date":"2026-07-22T07:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/816079\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T07:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:44:14","slug":"red-bull-poaches-mercedes-figure-to-replace-helmut-marko-in-major-f1-coup-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/816079\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull poaches Mercedes figure to replace Helmut Marko in major F1 coup – reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull<\/a> have signed up Mercedes\u2019 driver development boss Gwen Lagrue, who was instrumental in Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s Formula 1<\/a> swoop.<\/p>\n

After Helmut Marko\u2019s departure, at the end of last season, the Milton-Keynes-based squad had been on the look out for a worthy replacement. <\/p>\n

It would appear now, that, that particular search has come to an end, with Red Bull having secured the services of Lagrue, who was the chief driver scout for the German marque<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman had been instrumental in signing up a 11-year-old Antonelli to the team\u2019s junior program. And his judgment seems to be impeccable as the 19-year-old leads the 2026 driver\u2019s championship, in only his sophomore year in the sport. <\/p>\n

Lagrue is slated to join Red Bull as its head of the junior driver programme, as per the BBC \u2013 the post formerly held by Marko while he scouted the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen for the team.<\/p>\n

This would surely be a heavy loss for Mercedes, who described Lagrue as the \u201cjeweller\u201d of the team. <\/p>\n

The move could also cast doubt on the future of Guileume Rocquelin, the Red Bull Driver Academy chief. A<\/p>\n

ffectionately known as \u2018Rocky\u2019, the former engineer to Vettel has been in the post since 2022, and was widely slated to be the replacement for Marko, amid the Austrian\u2019s retirement upon the conclusion of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

\"ItIt was Lagrue who had signed up championship leader Kimi Antonelli to Mercedes<\/p>\n

Mercedes initiate potential discussions to retain Lagrue\u2019s F1 services<\/p>\n

At the time of writing, there has been no official communication from either of the parties. <\/p>\n

Further, there is no timeline in place for the Frenchman\u2019s reported transition to Red Bull. <\/p>\n

At the Belgian GP weekend, Team Principal Toto Wolff had hinted that negotiations were still underway with Lagrue about his future within the organisation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in discussions with Gwen about the future, but nothing\u2019s been agreed or decided yet,\u201d Wolff had said. <\/p>\n

\u201cGwen has built up a fantastic team, we\u2019re about seven, eight or nine people that are running the junior programme going forward, with a handful of juniors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Bradley [Lord] stepping up as a Deputy Principal, these things need to be carved out now. We want to do it together with Gwen.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Red Bull firmly in these conversations, there is no doubt that Wolff will fight tooth and nail to secure Lagrue\u2019s future with Mercedes. <\/p>\n

But the chance to take the baton from someone as iconic as Marko may also be a temptation that might draw the Frenchman away from Brackley and to Milton-Keynes. <\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 McLaren to field Fornaroli in Hungary amid Haas F1 rumours<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull have signed up Mercedes\u2019 driver development boss Gwen Lagrue, who was instrumental in Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,945,15196,85],"class_list":["post-816079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mercedes","tag-redbull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}