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
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
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]
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