Who is Red Bull’s F1 driver whisperer Helmut Marko?

If you are looking for a short answer on why Helmut Marko has played such an influential role in the careers of dozens of drivers, it could be: Jochen Rindt. The two grew up together in Graz, tearing up the roads in the Styrian Alps in a Volkswagen Beetle in the early 60s while planning road trips to the Nurburgring to watch Formula 1 cars up close.

“We drove all night, parked in the woods and slept in the car,” the now 81-year-old Marko told the F1 website. “We woke up the next morning from the noise of the Formula 1 cars. Jochen immediately said: ‘That’s for me, that is what I want to do!’”

Rindt eventually did make it all the way to the top in F1, becoming one of the leading drivers until that fateful 5th of September 1970, when he died at the Italian Grand Prix, becoming F1’s only posthumous world champion.

“Jochen infected me with the racing bug,” said Marko. “We both were always interested in racing, but didn’t have the self-confidence. But then Jochen went to England and succeeded – so I thought: ‘If he can do it, I can do it too! Why not? He paved the way.” 

Marko did indeed follow in his fellow Austrian’s footsteps, making his debut at the 1971 German Grand Prix. But his biggest success came at that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, taking the overall victory alongside Gijs van Lennep in the Porsche 917K, the second consecutive triumph for Porsche.

Marko eventually made nine grand prix appearances, but his racing career was curtailed by an incident at the 1972 French Grand Prix when a rock pierced his visor, leaving Marko blind in his left eye aged 29. “I knew back then that I would never again be able to compete on a competitive level and I didn’t want to end up as a ‘gentleman driver’,” he recounted. “Now I have to say that I am really happy and lucky that I survived that period with only the loss of an eye…”

Gijs van Lennep, Dr. Helmut Marko, Martini International Racing Team, Porsche 917K

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

Marko’s replacement at BRM was another Austrian, a certain chap called Niki Lauda who ended up doing pretty well for himself too…

With his racing days over, Marko found other ways to stay involved in the sport, managing the careers of fellow Austrians Gerhard Berger and Karl Wendlinger. Wendlinger would compete for Marko’s own F3000 team RSM, with other names on his roster including the mercurial Juan Pablo Montoya and triple Supercars champion Craig Lowndes.

In 1990 he would also first come in contact with Red Bull supremo Dietrich Mateschitz, who was keen on using motor racing’s high octane image to promote his Red Bull energy drinks brand. Mateschitz appointed Marko as his advisor, and the pair founded the Red Bull Junior Team, which would go on to produce numerous F1 drivers.

That role became a lot more hands on when Mateschitz wanted to move from being a team sponsor to team owner, and the opportunity arose to take the struggling Jaguar off Ford’s reluctant hands. Alongside team principal Christian Horner, Marko would have Mateschitz’s ear and continue to have a say regarding driver line-ups of Red Bull and its sister team (nee Toro Rosso), launching the careers of generations of racing drivers that were snapped up by the junior teams that sported its iconic liveries in feeder series around the world.

He developed a reputation for his uncompromising sink or swim approach, and his antiquated world view also landed him in hot water in recent years. But as the Red Bull team churned through dozens of talents, some of whom made it to F1 and others who were ruthlessly cast aside, most would later admit that they would have never had a career in motor racing without Red Bull’s crucial backing.

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing RB6 celebrates becoming 2010 world champion

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

Sebastian Vettel was the Red Bull programme’s first major win, with the German recalled to drive for Toro Rosso after an impressive debut in 2007 on loan at BMW, going on to become a quadruple world champion. Others who passed through the scheme to flourish into grand prix winners include Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly.
 
Red Bull found a successor to Vettel in Dutch prodigy Max Verstappen, although the Dutchman didn’t pass through the junior team itself. A prized asset at age 17 after blitzing the karting and junior formula scene, Verstappen spoke to several F1 teams, but only Marko and Red Bull were able to guarantee him a race drive in 2015, at Toro Rosso. Verstappen’s rapid promotion from F3 showed Marko and Horner were not afraid to take bold decisions, and thus it was only a mild surprise when Verstappen was swapped into Red Bull’s main team ahead of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix at the expense of Daniil Kvyat.
 
The rest is history, of course, with Verstappen now a four-time world champion. But his mid-season promotion to Red Bull was the first of what ended up becoming a freehanded approach to how Red Bull and Toro Rosso seats were assigned. Using Marko’s ruthless philosophy, rookies were steam-pressed at Toro Rosso before being either jettisoned or promoted to the main team, which caused a backlog of talents that never made it there and departed for new pastures, like Sainz, or those who had to abandon their F1 dreams altogether like Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, with Jos Verstappen and Helmut Marko, Consultant, Red Bull Racing, in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

But with Verstappen, Marko built up a loyal bond, the strength of which came to light this time last year. Marko lost a key ally when his long-time friend and guarantor Mateschitz died in 2022, and in the wake of the Red Bull co-owner’s passing, a power struggle between Horner and the Austrian side threatened to tear the team apart, potentially driving Verstappen away. The Dutchman made it very clear that his future was directly linked to Marko’s fate, with the Austrian remaining on board as tensions have eased.

Verstappen is still there, but following Ricciardo’s departure to Renault in 2019, Horner and Marko have found it much harder to find a suitable team-mate for the world champion and his unique driving style. Gasly was tried and demoted mid-season in 2019, while Alex Albon also didn’t make the grade after a season-and-a-half. Sergio Perez used his experience to last for four seasons, but he, too, drowned once Red Bull’s car handling issues became too much. Along with question marks around the wider issues plaguing Red Bull’s current F1 machinery, the team’s cavalier handling of Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda raises further questions over its driver decision making, with Lawson’s two-race stint for Red Bull a new, unenviable record.

“With time it’ll come, but I just don’t have time,” Lawson said after qualifying last at the Chinese Grand Prix. When Motorsport.com put Lawson’s quote to Marko, the Austrian ominously said: “He’s right. It was disappointing, and we have to go through and analyse everything, and then we see. It’s all depending on performance, and he didn’t deliver.”

Now the axe has swung yet again, and while Tsunoda gets his — fraught — chance of a lifetime, Marko is already looking towards the next generation of talent to find the next Vettel and Verstappen.

They better learn how to swim.