Last Updated on December 31 2023, 10:41 am

Helmut Marko has confirmed this week he will be staying at Red Bull Racing for the foreseeable future. The Austrian who has always been controversial revealed during 2023 he and Christian Horner had significant differences over their driver lineup and was sanctioned in the autumn by the FIA for alleged racist comments he made about Sergio Perez.

Rumours emerged that Horner wanted Marko out of the racing operation but he confirmed last night to Austrian OE24, “My future has been clarified in a positive sense.”

 

 

Marko confirms he is not leaving RBR

“Everything will proceed as planned. Will I do all 24 races? Yes, and it won’t be stressful for me. If I said to myself that this is a crazy schedule, it would be difficult.

“The reality is I tell myself that Australia is beautiful and I can’t wait to be in Melbourne. I will continue my work for Red Bull Racing from 11am on Friday morning to Sunday evening. I cannot wait.”

Of course Dr. Marko was contracted for the coming season anyway as he revealed when he insisted to assembled media in Austin, “I have a contract until the end of next year. When and how I stop, when it’s over for me, I will decide. Not Mr Horner, for example.”

Helmut Marko is known well as his head of the young driver programme, something he has pursued since 1999 before the energy drinks company even entered Formula One. Yet his influence extends beyond that in a number of ways as his revelations over the future relationship with the two F1 teams and Honda suggests.

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All the teams are now two years out from the next big power unit regulation change for the 2026 season and due to Honda’s indecision back in 2021, Red Bull have decided to build their own drive units.

This is a remarkable venture given no F1 team without a background in auto manufacturing has ever attempted something like this. The team announced a partnership with Ford at their car launch this year, but that will very much be in terms of a consultancy role for the American car giant. 

The real work on the engine design is taking place in Milton Keynes with Red Bull staff.

Earlier this season both Christian Horner and Max Verstappen created waves when they criticised the new FIA engine regulations suggesting given that 50% of the power must be electrical the internal combustion engine at times would be merely acting s a generator to produce electricity.

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At circuits like Monza Verstappen stated the simulations he had driven would require drivers to change down a gear half way along a straight to create more power.

This was dismissed by Mercedes and Toto Wolff who mocked Red Bull claiming their all new power unit division was clearly failing in the massive venture they were undertaking. However, Red Bull were the first manufacturer to reveal they had fired up a prototype power unit several months ago, while the Italian media reported Ferrari’s first effort was just last week.

With the F1 car design regulations stable for two more years and the power units frozen from any further development, Red Bull look to be in pole position to lead from the front over the next couple of championship challenges.

But the huge challenge of building the new ‘greener’ V6 Turbo engines is one even the team cannot properly quantify. However, Dr. Marko is confident in the progress to date as he reveals to OE24.

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“Even though we are still a long way from competitive use, everything is going according to plan and the performance curve is right.”

Yet there must be toggling doubts the Red Bull Powertrain project could go horribly wrong and with Honda now changing their mind about leaving F1 and signed up with Aston Martin for 2026, Marko was asked about a Honda “plan B” and his response was absolute

“No, it has to work,” he said. “From 2026, we will be racing with our own engine. Until then, we want the best possible performance potential from Honda, which has worked well so far.”

Interestingly Marko also reveals another of his roles within the Red Bull Racing organisation claiming it was he who rescued the team from their disastrous relationship with Renault.

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“Honda was my deal, so I will continue to look after it.”

In the early days of the relationship, Marko was flying to and from Japan to ensure the relationship became embedded but clearly with their eyes on the future and championships under their belt, the 80 year old Austrian added, “I no longer have to go there. 24 races are enough for me, and one of them is in Japan anyway.”

With three F1 championships under his belt and a clear opportunity to become only the second behind Michael Schumacher who will manage five consecutive titles, there’s a lot on the line for Max Verstappen and the Rede Bull Powertrain operation.

Yet despite this Max is signed up with Red Bull until 2028 meaning he could experience three mean years should the Milton Keynes team get their new power units badly wrong.

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Verstappen’s response was interesting when asked whether his dominance was threatened by the future of Red Bull introducing their own independent power unit.

“A difficult question. With a question mark,” he told Swiss publication Blick.

“But hundreds of people are working on this Red Bull Powertrains project in Milton Keynes. We don’t want to be caught on the wrong foot in 2026. We all hope it will be a rocket. We will see.”

Unlike the R&D phase years before the 2014 V6 Turbo’s were introduced, the current phase oof development is budget restricted by the FIA. So unlike Mercedes who allegedly spent over $1bn in research and development in the run up to 2014, Red Bull despite their deep pockets will have to utilise their ingenuity when designing their first power unit – if they hope to beat the big boys who have been doing this for decades.

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