Helmut Marko

Helmut Marko

Nation:	Austria
Automobile world championship
First start:	Grand Prix of Austria 1971
Last start:	1972 French Grand Prix
Constructors
1971–1972  BRM
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 9 - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Helmut Marko (born April 27, 1943 in Graz ) is an Austrian lawyer , hotelier and former racing car driver and racing team owner. He won in 1971 the prestigious 24-hour race at Le Mans and launched from 1971 to 1972 in nine Formula 1 -race.

Since 2005, Marko has been head of motorsport for the Austrian beverage manufacturer Red Bull , which has its own Formula 1 racing team with the Red Bull Racing team. He is also responsible for Red Bull Motorsport's youth program.

life and career

Youth and Studies

Marko, 1970

In his youth, Helmut Marko and his long-time friend and later Formula 1 world champion Jochen Rindt attended the Bad Aussee private secondary school . At the beginning of the 1960s he enrolled in law , but also began to be actively involved in motorsport together with Rindt. However, under pressure from his parents, he first finished his studies. In 1967 he received his doctorate in law.

Driver career

Immediately after completing his doctorate, he began his active racing career in Formula Vee , where he drove an Austro V from Porsche Salzburg. In 1968 he moved into the Kaimann team of Kurt Bergmann and became an Austrian instant champion. He then switched to sports car races , but continued to contest Formula Vee races at the McNamara racing team, which he also advised legally. He also got into Formula 3 in 1969 .

Porsche 917K, winning car of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1971, driven by Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep

Marko made his breakthrough in racing in July 1971, when he and the Dutchman Gijs van Lennep won the Le Mans 24 Hours in a Porsche 917 . In this race, Marko and van Lennep set a distance record of 5,335.313 kilometers, which, including pit stops, corresponds to an average of 222.304 km / h. This record was only exceeded 39 years later in the 2010 race , also due to the modifications to the race track .

At the 1971 German Grand Prix , Marko tried in vain to qualify for a Formula 1 race in a McLaren-Ford . Two weeks later he took part in a Grand Prix for the first time in a BRM P153 at the Austrian Grand Prix . He finished eleventh, two laps behind.

In May 1972 he finished second at the Targa Florio with an Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 and set a lap record of 33:41 minutes, which was not broken until the race was closed in 1977.

After Marko had signed a preliminary contract with Ferrari for the 1973 Automobile World Championship , he was hit by a stone, the March, at his ninth Formula 1 race, the 1972 French Grand Prix at the Circuit de Charade near Clermont-Ferrand 721 by Ronnie Peterson . This broke through his visor and inflicted a serious injury to his left eye, which meant the end of his active motorsport career. Since then, Marko has been wearing a prosthetic eye .

Entrepreneur and team leader

After the forced end of his career in racing, Helmut Marko entered the hotel industry without any previous gastronomic training and opened the Schlossberg Hotel and the Augarten Hotel in Graz . When designing the interiors of his houses, he primarily allowed young Austrian artists to play a role.

In 1984 he founded the RSM Marko team and competed in the DTM until 1989 . From the mid-1980s, the team also competed in the German Formula 3 championship and won the championship with Karl Wendlinger in 1989 and Jörg Müller in 1994 . From 1996 to 2003 the team also competed in the International Formula 3000 Championship and won the title with Jörg Müller in its debut year.

Marko also worked as a manager for many drivers on his team, including Gerhard Berger and Karl Wendlinger . In the 1990s he became a consultant for youth issues at Red Bull and from 2003 team boss of the Red Bull junior team in Formula 3000 , where he paved the way for talents like Juan Pablo Montoya to enter Formula 1. In 2005, he returned to Formula 1 as Head of Motorsport at Red Bull , when the company took over the Jaguar Racing team and has since continued it under the name Red Bull Racing .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1970	Martini International Racing	Porsche 908/02 long tail	Rudi Lins	3rd place and class win
1971	Martini International Racing	Porsche 917	Gijs van Lennep	Overall victory
1972	Autodelta Spa	Alfa Romeo Tipo 33	Vic Elford	failure	Clutch damage

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1972	Autodelta SpA	Alfa Romeo T33 / TT / 3	Vic Elford	failure	Engine failure

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11
1968	Bosch Racing	Porsche 906	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
											9
1969	Richard Gerin	Porsche 910	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
												8th
1970	Martini Racing Porsche Salzburg	Porsche 908 Porsche 917	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
								11	5	3	7th	DNF
1971	Martini Racing	Porsche 917 Porsche 908	BUA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
			DNF	DNF			DNF	DNF		3	1	DNF
1972	Autodelta Ferrari	Alfa Romeo T33 Ferrari 312PB	BUA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
			4th	3	DNF	6th			2	3	DNF	2

Award

• Honorary Citizen of the City of Graz (2018)

Web links

Commons : Helmut Marko  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Helmut Marko at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Helmut Marko and Formula 1: How it all began ... motorsport-total.com, September 22, 2005, accessed on January 21, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Peter Schroeder: McNamara Racing The way from Lenggries to Indianapolis 1968–1971. VIEW GmbH, 1st edition 2015, ISBN 978-3-945397-03-9
3. ^ Helmut Marko - My best race: Targa Florio 1972 - Meeting with the Mafia. auto-motor-und-sport.de, January 20, 2012, accessed on January 21, 2013 . 
4. ↑ Second attempt: is Lauda reconciling with the British? motorsport-total.com, January 3, 2013, accessed January 21, 2013 . 
5. ↑ Interview with Marko about his accident
6. ↑ Route history on the official homepage of the route ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (French, undated, found on February 10, 2010)
7. ↑ Michael Zeitler: Series: Formula 1 - WM Red Bull: 6. Chief (consultant) Helmut Marko. inside-racing.de, January 27, 2011, accessed on January 21, 2013 . 
8. ↑ Honorary Citizen Helmut Marko: A Life in the Fast Lane from June 14, 2018, accessed on July 12, 2018.