Ruthless Helmut Marko has gone through nearly a HUNDRED Red Bull stars

Helmut Marko and Yuki Tsunoda on the grid — Photo: © LAT Images

Red Bull

Ruthless Marko has gone through nearly a HUNDRED Red Bull stars - pressure is on for Perez and Tsunoda

Marko has not been slow in cutting ties with young racers

Gary Gowers

Friday 25 August 2023 11:57

It’s well known in F1 circles that Helmut Marko is not one to be messed with.

To be on his wrong side is not a good place to be – a fate that’s befallen many a young and up-and-coming driver since the inception of Red Bull’s Young Driver programme in 2001.

But even before the programme began, Marko was involved in the development and management of drivers. For several years he managed a group of stars that included fellow Austrians Gerhard Berger and Karl Wendlinger, before setting up his own racing team, RSM Marko, in the late-1980s.

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It competed in Formula 3 and Formula 3000 (the equivalent of today’s F2), and in 1999 - with the link-up with Red Bull already established - was re-named the Red Bull Junior Team.

The Marko Factor

By 2001 it had morphed into the Red Bull Young Driver programme that we recognise today and Marko has remained at front and centre of it throughout, even when his wider official role at Red Bull and AlphaTauri (formerly known as Torro Rosso) was enhanced to ‘senior advisor’.

Unofficially he’s also the spokesperson for both teams, with his forthright views often the talk of the F1 paddock and the wider F1 community, and that forthrightness has been a key element of his approach to the young drivers, especially when it comes to hiring and firing.

Sebastian Vettel (right) was one of the major success stories from Marko's young driver programme

In terms of pure numbers, the programme has worked. Five drivers who have been a part of it - Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, and Carlos Sainz - have gone on to win F1 races, while two of them, Vettel and Verstappen, have gone on to become multiple world champions.

By any metric that equates to success but it hasn’t been achieved without pain along the way for those who failed to make the grade. And while all of the teams on the 2023 F1 grid, with the exception of Haas, now have their own version of a young driver programme, few of them operate like Red Bull.

No Sentiment

That same ruthlessness, borne of Marko’s own no-nonsense approach, also extends to the treatment of their four F1 drivers, hence the pressure being currently heaped on Sergio Perez and the heat felt in the recent past by Ricciardo, Gasly, Alex Albon and, more recently, Nyck de Vries.

While the aim is to identify, develop, nurture and promote young talent, if at any point on that journey Marko deems the driver’s progress to have slowed or plateaued, then action is usually taken. Sentiment plays no part which is why, in effect, the only driver within the Red Bull organisation who doesn’t drive under that level of pressure is, for obvious reasons, Verstappen.

The rest, whether junior or at the top level of the sport, are only a few poor drives away from the highway.

To put some numbers to the programme, in its 22-year history 97 drivers have passed through and eight have made it all the way to earn a seat in the main Red Bull car.

While not champions, Daniel Ricciardo (left) and Carlos Sainz (right) are also successful graduates

In addition to those mentioned earlier who have made it to the top step of the F1 podium, Christian Klein (2005-06), Vitantonio Liuzzi (2005), Daniil Kvyat (2016-16), and Albon (2019-20) also made it all the way to the Red Bull hotseat, while seven more, including Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz, made it through the academy to earn a drive in the Torro Rosso/AlphaTauri.

While Sainz earned his F1 win elsewhere - at Ferrari - the jury (and Marko) still await to see if Tsunoda’s promise is going to be realised.

A New Fittipaldi on the Block?

In the current Red Bull programme there are 12 young drivers, including Enzo Fittipaldi – grandson of the great Emerson Fittipaldi – and Sebastian Montoya, son of Juan Pablo Montoya, who are all out to impress Marko and prolong their stay in the Red Bull camp.

Most of those who are cast aside try to find an alternative route into top-level motorsport, while some simply still refuse to give up on the Formula 1 dream.

One of those, and one who offers a perfect snapshot into the workings of Red Bull Racing, is Callum Ilott. Aged just 16, the young Englishman was identified as one with exceptional talent through his exploits in karting and was put on the same pathway that catapulted Max Verstappen to F1 stardom after just a single season of racing in European Formula 3.

Enzo Fittipaldi is considered as the lead Red Bull driver coming through the academy now

Unfortunately for Illot, he had nothing like the success of the Dutchman and after just one winless season was unceremoniously dropped. Now aged 24, he is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy and currently drives for Juncos Hollinger Racing in the US-based IndyCar Series.

But he is just one of many who found out the hard way what an unwelcoming environment it can be at Red Bull if you are not trading in race wins. Statistically, the turnover rate of drivers there is much higher than those of the other F1 academies – a stat Marko and co would no doubt attribute to their winning mentality.

Survival of the Fastest

So, while Red Bull rules the roost right now, and appears set do to so for the foreseeable, it’s not been a journey short of casualties. There have been plenty.

But it’s not as if the drivers haven’t been warned. When asked in 2016 to describe the Red Bull ethos, Marko spelt it out in the simplest terms possible:

“We basically have long-term contracts at the Red Bull junior programme and the whole programme is based on performance. So no shoot-out, but be very clear: the one who is not delivering goes.”

Yuki and Sergio take note.