Helmut Marko: assets of the Red Bull Motorsport boss

How rich is Helmut Marko?

Dr. Helmut Marko was a promising young racing driver in the early 1970s. But then he lost his left eye and had to end his career behind the wheel. Instead, he became a hotel owner and team boss – first with his own racing team, then also with Red Bull Racing. He also had a large share in Sebastian Vettel’s four world championship titles and Max Verstappen’s 2021 title. The cherished Helmut Marko’s assets are 65 million euros.

This is how Helmut Marko built his fortune

Helmut Marko was a Formula 1 racing driver in the early 1970s. However, Formula 1 salaries and awards were considerably lower at that time than they are now. That is why the Austrian had only been earning real money as an entrepreneur since his retirement in 1972 and had thus laid the foundation for his current fortune. He does this on the one hand as the owner of four hotels in Graz and on the other hand as team boss in racing. He has been running his RSM Marko racing team since 1984 and has also been the manager of many of his drivers. The racing team has been supported by Red Bull (Boss: Dietrich Mateschitz) since 1999, and is Marko has been Head of Motorsport at Red Bull Racing since 2005. For this job he receives an annual salary of 2 million euros.

First law degree, then racing

Helmut Marko made friends with Jochen Rindt, who was to become Formula 1 world champion in 1970, when he was still at school. While Marko in the Studied law in the 1960s, he was infected by Rindt with his enthusiasm for motorsport. However, he did not begin his racing career until he finished his studies with a doctorate in 1967. He then started in Formula Vee, where he became Austrian champion in 1968. The following year he got into Formula 3. In July 1971 Marko won the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Dutchman Gijs van Lennep. A month later, the Austrian completed his first Formula 1 race in Spielberg in his home country. He finished eleventh.

Sudden end of career

In May 1972, Dr. Helmut Marko took part in the Targa Florio long-distance race and came in second. The lap record that he set is still valid today, since the race was discontinued in 1977. By July 1972, Marko had started in a total of nine Formula 1 races, but none of them made it into the points. At the 1972 French Grand Prix, he lost his left eye in a rock fall. As a result, he was no longer able to drive car races. Since then, Helmut Marko has had a glass eye.

Helmut Marko: Hotel owner and team manager

After the end of his racing career, Marko opened two hotels in Graz, although he had no experience in the hotel business. As a hotelier, Dr. Helmut Marko continue to expand his fortune. He also founded the RSM Marko racing team. For this Peter Oberndorfer started in the first season 1984 of the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) in an Alfa Romeo. At the German Grand Prix in August 1984 Oberndorfer achieved a victory, in the drivers’ championship he ultimately finished 7th. Until 1989, various drivers took part in the DTM for RSM Marko. From the mid-1980s, the team also competed in the German Formula 3 Cup. There, in 1989 Karl Wendlinger and in 1994 Jörg Müller won the championship title for Markos Rennstall.

Long-term collaboration with Red Bull

In addition to his work as team boss, Helmut Marko was also the manager of many of his drivers, including Gerhard Berger and Karl Wendlinger. In 1999, RSM Marko was renamed Red Bull Junior Team and took part in Formula 3000 under the leadership of Marko. This one was 2005 Team boss of the new Formula 1 racing team Red Bull Racing. Since 2006 he has also been the team boss of Red Bull’s second team Scuderia AlphaTauri, and he is also responsible for promoting the Group’s youngsters in racing. The four world championships that Sebastian Vettel won with Red Bull Racing from 2010 to 2013 are Marko’s greatest success as team boss to date. In 2017 and 2020, Marko opened two more hotels in Graz, with which he can expand his fortune even further.

_{Image sources:
Cover picture: Heimo Ruschitz [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
@ crash71100 / Flickr [CC0 1.0]}