Mekies, Verstappen and Hadjar: all still in contact with Helmut Marko

Marko’s importance At the end of last season, Helmut Marko’s activity in Red Bull (and more generally in F1) officially ended after a long stay in the Anglo-Austrian team, where he acted as a consultant as well as having created and managed the historic Red Bull Junior Team nursery. A ‘school’ that has seen the growth of many young talents who have then found a place in F1, just like those who currently occupy the seat of the Milton Keynes single-seater, namely the four-time world champion Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar. Never disappeared from the team At present the 82-year-old is enjoying a well-deserved retirement, but the contacts with Red Bull have not disappeared at all, on the contrary. The confirmation came directly from the most representative men of the team, starting with Team Principal Laurent Mekies, who was promoted in 2025 by Racing Bulls after the dismissal of Christian Horner: “Helmut has remained very open and available with us – he declared to Beyond the Grid – I talk to him, they (the drivers) do it, and I’m sure that we all talk to him and receive his advice, even if we don’t see him on the track. You can’t move on with Helmut, who built this young driver program for two decades with incredible success. So, right now, we live off his legacy and, like I said, he’s behind the scenes if we need him.” The contacts remain Marko absent in the pits but still present and available. A concept that was also shared by Max Verstappen, a driver who represented the top of the Red Bull Junior Team program and one of the most brilliant pages of the team together with that of Sebastian Vettel’s repeated successes: “Maybe there will be a little less Austrian jokes from Helmut, but I am still in contact with him – he confirmed to the media – perhaps not so much for the details of the car, but for life in general. I shared many moments with him, so, obviously, it will be a little different in the garage, but we also have to look ahead, right? We need to think about performance, but at the same time, as I said, we have an excellent relationship and we still stay in touch.” Gratitude Further confirmation also came from Hadjar, who has always remained grateful to his mentor despite a start to his career in F1 heavily criticized by Marko himself at the beginning of 2025 for having cried after a mistake made on the reconnaissance lap in Australia: “There are certain things he wants to see, and I can’t speak for the others and their experience, but I have always had an excellent relationship with him and he has contributed enormously to my career. The fact that he believed in me when others didn’t, I am very grateful to him grateful, because without him this opportunity would not have come.”