Helmut Marko

Helmut Marko (born 27 April 1943) is an Austrian former professional racing driver and a current director of the Red Bull Formula One teams, and head of Red Bull's driver development programme.^[1]

Helmut Marko

Marko in 2016
Born	(1943-04-27) 27 April 1943 (age 81) Graz, German Reich (now Austria)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Austrian
Active years	1971–1972
Teams	BRM, non-works McLaren
Entries	10 (9 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1971 German Grand Prix
Last entry	1972 French Grand Prix

Biography

Marko was born in Graz, Austria (then part of Nazi Germany). He was a school friend of Jochen Rindt,^[2] who became Formula One world champion in 1970. Marko competed in several race series, including 10 Formula One Grands Prix in 1971 and 1972, but scored no World Championship points.

Marko racing at the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans.

He had more success in endurance racing, winning the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans, driving a Martini-Porsche 917K with Gijs van Lennep. During that year, they set a distance record which remained unbeaten until the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans (5,335.313 km, at an average of 222.304 km/h - changes to the track reduced the average speed.)

Marko at the 1972 Targa Florio.

At the Targa Florio, he drove the fastest laps around the 72 km Sicilian mountain circuit in the 1972 race, catching up over two minutes on the leader within two laps to finish second by a mere 17 seconds. His fastest lap in the Alfa Romeo 33 was 33 min 41 sec, at an average of 128.253 km/h.^[3]

A few weeks later, during the 1972 French Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand, a stone thrown up by Ronnie Peterson's March^{[4][lower-alpha 1]} pierced Marko's helmet visor, permanently blinding his left eye and ending his racing career.^[5][6][7][8]

Marko in 1970.

Marko completed a doctorate in law in 1967.^[9] He owns four hotels in Graz – the Schlossberghotel, Augartenhotel, Lendhotel and Kai 36. He was manager for Austrian racing drivers Gerhard Berger and Karl Wendlinger for some years before setting up and running RSM Marko in 1989, a race team competing in Formula 3 and Formula 3000; running under the name Red Bull Junior Team from 1999 onwards. From 1999 he has also overseen the Red Bull driver development programme, which has steered drivers such as Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz Jr., Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen into Formula One. Since 2005 he has been an advisor to the Formula One teams owned by Red Bull GmbH (Red Bull Racing (2005-present), Scuderia Toro Rosso (2006-2019), Scuderia AlphaTauri (2020-2023) and RB Formula One Team (2024)).^[10]

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1970	Martini International Racing Team	Rudi Lins	Porsche 908/2LH	P 3.0	335	3rd	1st
1971	Martini International Racing Team	Gijs van Lennep	Porsche 917K	S 5.0	397	1st	1st
1972	Autodelta SpA	Vic Elford	Alfa Romeo Tipo 33TT3	S 3.0	232	DNF	DNF
Source:[11]

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Pts	Class
1970	BMW-Alpina	BMW 1600	C	BRH	SNE	THR	SIL	CRY	SIL	SIL 7	CRO	BRH	OUL	BRH	BRH	40th	4	14th
Source:[12]

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos.	Pts
1971	Ecurie Bonnier	Lola T240	Ford	HOC Ret	THR	NÜR 8	JAR Ret	PAL	ROU						20th	1
	Constructions Mechanique Pygmée	Pygmée MDB16								MAN Ret	TUL	ALB	VAL	VAL
Source:[13]

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	WDC	Pts
1971	Ecurie Bonnier	McLaren M7C	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	RSA	ESP	MON	NED	FRA	GBR	GER DNQ						NC	0
	Yardley-BRM	BRM P153	BRM P142 3.0 V12								AUT 11	ITA Ret	CAN 12
		BRM P160												USA 13
1972	Austria-Marlboro BRM	BRM P153	BRM P142 3.0 V12	ARG 10	RSA 14	ESP										NC	0
		BRM P153B					MON 8	BEL 10
		BRM P160B							FRA Ret	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA
Source:[14]

Notes

1. Some older sources, such as ESPN (1972), Motor Sport Retro (2013), The Guardian (2014) and Pitpass.com (2018) state that the stone was thrown up by Emerson Fittipaldi's Lotus, but more recent sources, such as GPBlog (2022), First Sportz (2022), The Sports Rush (2023) and PlanetF1 (2023) indicate that it was thrown up by Ronnie Peterson's March.

References

1. Delaney, Michael (3 November 2019). "No retirement in sight for the good Dr. Marko". www.f1i.com. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
2. Völker, Herbert. "The First Formula One Pop Star". The Red Bulletin September 2010. Red Bull Media House GmbH. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
3. 56th Targa Florio 1972, formula2.net, as archived at web.archive.org
4. Tripathi, Gunaditya (26 June 2022). "Helmut Marko reminiscences the fatal accident bringing an end to his promising F1 career 50 years ago". firstsportz.com. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
5. A Era dos Campeões (DVD). Hangar Filmes.
6. Williams, Richard (14 November 2010). "Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko, the mastermind behind Sebastian Vettel". The Observer. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
7. "Charade". racingcircuits.info. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
8. "The Volcanic Rush of Clermont Ferrand". speedhunters.com. August 2013. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
9. Völker, Herbert. "Die Diagnosen des Doktors". Zeit Online. ZEIT ONLINE GmbH. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
10. "Helmut Marko: Red Bull senior figure will not be suspended after talks with shareholder Oliver Mintzlaff". Sky Sports. 9 March 2024. Archived from the original on 9 May 2024. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
11. "All Results of Helmut Marko". RacingSportCars. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
12. de Jong, Frank. "British Saloon Car Championship". History of Touring Car Racing 1952-1993. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
13. "Helmut Marko – Biography". MotorSportMagazine. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
14. Small, Steve (1994). The Guinness Complete Grand Prix Who's Who. Guinness. p. 245. ISBN 0851127029.

External links

• Profile at grandprix.com