Paul Monaghan linked to Cadillac exit from Red Bull

Paul Monaghan is widely reported to be heading for Cadillac in a senior engineering role, putting another long-serving Red Bull figure at the center of exit speculation even as the team refuses to confirm any departure.

Multiple reports during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend said the 58-year-old chief engineer, who has been with Red Bull since 2005, is planning to leave Milton Keynes for the new American project. RacingNews365 said it had confirmed the likelihood with multiple sources in the paddock at the Red Bull Ring, and reported that Aston Martin had also made Monaghan an offer before Cadillac emerged as the expected destination.

That leaves Red Bull trying to contain the story rather than settle it. Asked about Monaghan after opening practice in the FIA team representatives' press conference, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies declined to address the rumor directly. “There is a lot of rumours about the team and the team personnel,” Mekies said. “Paul is actually here today. He has been working very hard to get our cars out this morning.” He added that Red Bull would not comment on “every single rumour that comes out.”

Monaghan’s importance inside Red Bull goes well beyond his title. He is one of the team’s longest-serving senior engineers and has been part of its structure since the first year of the Red Bull era. The reports describe him as a key link between a car’s theoretical potential and the performance it actually delivers at the track, helping translate design performance into lap time across different circuits and changing race conditions. His tenure spans Red Bull’s championship-winning runs with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

That is why the rumor matters as much as the move itself. Red Bull has already seen a series of senior departures from the group that underpinned its years at the front, with Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko all referenced in reports around the team’s recent churn. Red Bull has also already confirmed that Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will leave for McLaren in 2028.

Mekies insisted Red Bull still believes in the depth of its operation. “The most striking aspect of the first 12 months is the strength in depth that we have,” he said. He also said there is “nothing more important to us than making sure we are in a position to keep our talents and to attract the one we need.”

If Monaghan does follow the reports and leave for Cadillac, Red Bull would lose another engineer closely tied to the team’s rise and title-winning identity, while Cadillac would add an experienced senior figure from one of Formula 1’s most successful modern operations at a time when Red Bull’s technical stability is under increasing scrutiny.