Marko extends at Red Bull: No coincidence Verstappen loves him so much

How Helmut Marko ended up at Red Bull

Dietrich Mateschitz was a big fan of sport and dedicated himself to helping athletes from day one with his company Red Bull. The Austrian soon recognised that reaching the top was not financially feasible for all talents and tried to lend a helping hand in this way.

In car racing, Marko became his right-hand man. Marko was the only one in his network who knew about racing and, therefore, had all the tasks thrown at him. Marko explained this to GPblog in an exclusive interview in 2023. Marko was initially allowed to sponsor drivers who might also make money later, but when the two F1 teams were acquired in 2005 and 2006, there was no longer any need to do so. Marko was given a free hand and could support even more talents in their path to F1.

Why Verstappen loves Marko

Marko has remained connected to Red Bull's Junior Team to this day. With Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, two world champions have already emerged from that programme. Perhaps not necessarily because of the programme's guidance (as Verstappen and Vettel joined very late), but because Marko and Red Bull dare to give talents a chance.

It is not for nothing that Verstappen is loyal to Marko. The Dutchman has often mentioned how important the Austrian has been and that he feels like a second father. Words we once heard from Vettel. It is not just the current drivers who speak highly of Marko. Even those who owe their F1 careers to Red Bull: Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon. Add to that the four drivers from the Red Bull teams, and almost half the grid is in F1 because of Red Bull.

Criticism of Helmut Marko

A common criticism in recent years is that no talents have broken through at Red Bull for ages, let alone switched to Red Bull Racing. However, this is not entirely fair. How many talents break through in F1 every year?

Compared to all other F1 teams, Red Bull still offer by far the most opportunities to young drivers at AlphaTauri. Nyck de Vries, Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon made their F1 debuts in the past five years at AlphaTauri. Williams (George Russell, Nicholas Latifi and Logan Sargeant) were the only team with three drivers debuting during that period.

Another criticism you regularly hear is that the great champions Red Bull have produced were not part of the Red Bull training at all. It is true, of course. Vettel was plucked away from BMW, and Verstappen was only picked up by Red Bull halfway through his Formula 3 campaign. Yet no other team had a permanent seat left for the young driver at that time. Marko dared to take that risk, and it paid off.

Red Bull does give talents a chance

At the moment, Red Bull don't need a "new Max Verstappen", because they already have one. They just need to find a driver at Red Bull Racing who can score enough points alongside Verstappen to win the world title. That role as second fiddle is unsuitable for a driver from their own education set-up, as evident when Gasly and Albon were thrown to the lions.

In addition, several drivers in recent years also simply did not prove good enough to step up to the top. Perhaps a little too soon, Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon were even given a chance at Red Bull Racing and proved insufficient. Carlos Sainz, Daniil Kvyat, Yuki Tsunoda and even Nyck de Vries were given the opportunity to prove themselves in F1 at AlphaTauri but did not impress the management enough to earn a step up.

What remains intact is that Helmut Marko had a hugely important role in the seven world titles of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen during his time as Red Bull's advisor. Seven world titles in the last 14 years. Surely, that seems a nice statistic to submit and a logical reason for Red Bull to continue with the 80-year-old.