Sky Sports F1 star reveals Helmut Marko called him a 'trained monkey'

A Sky Sports F1 star has revealed that they were called a 'trained monkey' by former Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.

82-year-old Marko recently stepped down from his role at Red Bull after 20 years in the job, retiring despite having a contract that was supposed to run until the end of 2026.

Marko has overseen a hugely successful period for Red Bull, with the team having won six constructors' championships and eight drivers' championships over the last 15 years.

Both of the team's champion drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, were scouted by Marko in his role as advisor, as were the likes of Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and, more recently, Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda.

But Sky F1 legend Ted Kravitz has suggested that Marko was not necessarily the nicest man to media personnel, revealing that he was not too sad to see Marko leave the paddock.

"You know, when in the Vettel era, when I used to go and Vettel had won, and I would maybe interview a team boss first, or whatever," Kravitz begun on the F1 Show. "Or I got to Christian Horner and wait for him to come off the pit wall for an interview, such as my job as a pit reporter. And we do the interviews off the pit wall.

"Helmut Marko would always stride up, you know, tap Christian on the back. A couple of times he used to, Christian, as they were talking to me, I was where [points to Karun Chandhok], and he'd be there [points to himself], and Christian would be there [points across to Simon Lazenby], and he'd say to Christian, 'oh, well anyway, I see your trained monkey is waiting for you for the interview, so you better get on with it', and then he'd go up.

"He used to call me like this trained monkey that would follow Christian Horner around with a microphone. I was like, 'Haha, yeah. Good one Helmut. Yeah, you know, yeah. Clearly.'

"The stupid comments about Antonelli, the disgusting comments about Perez and blaming his lack of form on his ethnicity. So... for all of that, he was a hard old school racer, and when GP [Gianpiero Lambiase] was in tears on the pit wall two days, three days ago, who came and gave him an 'it's all right, mate, you know, it's all right'? It was Helmut.

"And there's something deep inside me that is sorry to see the old guy go something very small. And I will take it up, put it in a small bag and throw it in the bin when we finish this podcast, because I think time is finished. Ok?"

Who will replace Marko at Red Bull?

Marko's role has still been vitally important in the last few years, despite the fact that Red Bull have had the best driver of this current crop of drivers in Verstappen in one of their seats.

Verstappen's long-term future with Red Bull has been shrouded in uncertainty, and his new team-mate Isack Hadjar is still an unknown entity when it comes to racing with the main team.

18-year-old Arvid Lindblad will race for the sister Racing Bulls team in 2026, but he may well be needed in the main team sooner rather than later if his talents are as strong as hoped.

It means that Racing Bulls could well be running out of young Red Bull drivers in the years to come, meaning that scouting the next generation will be crucial.

Vettel has been tipped to replace Marko, with Marko himself even suggesting that the German four-time world champion would be great at the role given his off-track work in recent seasons trying to promote the careers of young female racing stars.

However, German publication Bild reported earlier this week that Red Bull aren't necessarily looking to replace Marko, potentially opting to leave his position vacant.

READ MORE: Helmut Marko addresses rumours he was 'pressured' to leave Red Bull

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