The Red Bull Racing F1 Team will launch its 2013 challenger the RB9 to an eager audience today. The new car of which great things are expected will be unveiled at the team’s Milton Keynes base at 13.00. It follows yesterday’s launch of the new Sauber Ferrari C32 at Hinwil in Switzerland.
Many will have heard of or be aware of Dr Helmut Marko in his current role as Motorsport consultant to Red Bull Racing F1 Team, but may not know that he was a promising young Formula One driver himself back in the 1970’s. Marko enjoys a special relationship as mentor to Sebastian Vettel and has helped to nurture the German aces career as part of the Red Bull Junior Team and on through his career in Formula 1. He is frequently seen on television at Grand Prix throughout the season but is not often interviewed.
Helmut Marko was born in Graz, Austria on 27th April 1943 and was a great friend of 1970 F1 World Champion the late great Jochen Rindt. Rindt and Marko were notorious in their younger days for racing and carrying out hair raising speed trials on public roads around Graz and were competitive from an early age. They both went on to compete in motorsport and for Rindt it led to the F1 World Drivers Title and ultimately cost him his life in practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 1970 when his Lotus 72 veered off the track under braking for the Parabolica the result of a suspected mechanical failure.
Helmut Marko studied law and gained a doctorate in 1967 as well as continuing with his motorsport activities. He joined the BRM Formula One Team in 1971 and competed in ten Grand Prix in ‘71 and ’72 showing considerable promise. He also enjoyed success as a sports car driver competing in and winning the Le Mans 24 Hour race driving a Martini Porsche 917K with Gijs Van Lennep in 1971. Sadly his driving career was cut short when at the 1972 French Grand Prix at Clermont Ferrand a stone thrown up from Emerson Fittipaldi’s Lotus 72 pierced Marko’s visor and blinded him in his left eye.
Marko went on to manage the careers of Austrian Formula One drivers Gerhard Berger and Karl Wendlinger prior to setting up his own team competing in Formula 3 and Formula 3000 under the banner of Red Bull Junior team. He continued his association with Red Bull by managing the Red Bull Driver development programme through to his current role with the team.
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