Helmut Marko claims he contemplated leaving Red Bull in 2023

Dr. Helmut Marko has an influential role at Red Bull. However, the 80-year-old considered leaving the Austrian giant at the end of last season.

Helmut Marko claims he contemplated leaving Red Bull in 2023

Helmut Marko & Max Verstappen (Via IMAGO)

Red Bull Racing has faced multiple controversies in the past couple of weeks. After Christian Horner’s investigation was concluded, Dr. Helmut Marko had raised concerns over his own tenure at Milton Keynes. However, the 80-year-old is expected to continue with the Austrian team. Now, Marko has revealed that he almost thought of leaving the team last year.

Helmut Marko is the Red Bull Motorsport Consultant. The Austrian is employed directly by the parent company Red Bull GmbH. The 80-year-old was close to Late Dietrich Mateschitz. However, after Mateschitz’s tragic death in 2022, Marko was subjected to more accountability to the Austrian giant. This might have made things difficult for him at Milton Keynes.

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Now, the Red Bull advisor has admitted that he considered leaving Red Bull at the end of 2023. Although, the 80-year-old did not delve into the reason for a potential departure. Instead, Helmut Marko highlighted that Milton Keynes needed to get out of recent controversies to honor the legacy of Dietrich Mateschitz. Marko even claimed that the team owed it to the Late Red Bull co-founder to preserve continue his ideas and values.

I hope everything ends as soon as possible. I already thought about leaving at the end of last year, but I also think we should think about the legacy of Dietrich Mateschitz, founder of Red Bull, what their ideas were and where they took us. We owe it to him.
Helmut Marko told De Telegraaf

Helmut Marko affirms that he will not be suspended

The 80-year-old was one rumored to have leaked the internal evidence of Christian Horner’s investigation to the media. However, things have calmed down since. Helmut Marko even mentioned that Red Bull decided to discard the alleged evidence leak against Horner for having no legal background.

We decided that these rumors of the leaks spread and had no legal background.
Christian Horner and Helmut Marko
Christian Horner and Helmut Marko (Via IMAGO)

Moreover, Marko made it clear that he was not going to be suspended by Red Bull. The 80-year-old affirmed that Milton Keynes would be pushing itself to the limit to win the 2024 F1 world title. Previously, Max Verstappen had claimed that he would leave Red Bull if Helmut Marko was forced out of the team.

I will not be suspended. Our goal is to win the world championship. For this we will have to work hard.

Certainly, it seems that Helmut Marko will be staying at Red Bull for the foreseeable future. The Austrian has played an integral role in building Milton Keynes for over two decades. However, it would be interesting to see the dynamics within the team in the coming days because of the continuous controversies.

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