Ex-Red Bull junior storms down on Helmut Marko’s ‘brutal’ and ‘sometimes unfair’ methods
Helmut Marko has been the handler of all of Red Bull's Driver Academy operations but his methods have been called into question many times.
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Helmut Marko and Jak Crawford (via X)
Former Red Bull Driver Academy recruit Jak Crawford set his foot into his debut FIA Formula 2 season amidst massive anticipation. The American had ended his campaign in the 2022 Formula 3 Championship in the 7th spot and had shown immense promise for even better results. Thus, he was scouted by Red Bull’s Helmut Marko as the Austrian is the one who manages all the operations of their Driver Academy. However, Crawford’s time with Red Bull in F2 did not turn out as expected.
As Crawford ended up in an unimpressive 13th position in F2 Standings at the end of the year, he had to exit Red Bull’s Driver Academy. Now, he is all set to join the Aston Martin junior program for the upcoming 2024 season.
The 18-year-old has been released from the Red Bull umbrella, and he gave his insight into the methods of their Chief Advisor Helmut Marko whose treatment he found to be quite ‘brutal’ and even ‘unfair’ at times. Jak Crawford elaborated on how Marko dealt with him after being dropped by Red Bull in the off-season.
His (Helmut Marko's) conversations are very short, very straight to the point. Sometimes he’s brutally honest. That’s the right way to say it. Sometimes it can be too brutally honest, where it can be unfair at times, if you want to say, but it’s not so bad.Jak Crawford said, via Racer.
Helmut Marko recently extended his contract with Red Bull amidst rumors of fallout
Red Bull has a few key positions where their main team personnel such as Helmut Marko, Christian Horner, and Adrian Newey are employed. While Horner’s position as the Team Principal at the Austrian outfit seems well-established, the tenures of Marko and Newey have been a topic of much discussion in F1 town.
There have been many speculations regarding a fallout between Christian Horner and Helmut Marko which led fans to believe the 80-year-old might not continue with Red Bull once his existing contract came to an end in 2024. But silencing all the discussions about Marko being ousted from Red Bull, he signed a brand new contract with the team that will go on for three years.
In other news, Helmut Marko has been credited for Alex Albon’s big break in the Red Bull F1 team as the Thai-British driver talked about it recently. He said he had personally approached Marko for a seat at Red Bull in F1 while he was still in Formula 2. Albon also claimed that had it not been for Marko, he would have joined Formula E once he left F2 as the second runner-up in 2018.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)