Marko has played a large role in the Red Bull Junior Programme and advised on which drivers should be brought up to F1 with Racing Bulls and Redbull. During his 20 years with the team, he oversaw the progression of 20 drivers to F1, including Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, who together won eight drivers titles for Redbull.

Arvid Lindblad is the most recent graduate of the Redbull Junior Programme with him stepping up to Racing Bulls next season. Learn more about Arvid Lindblad and his rise to F1 in this article about him.

Redbull and Helmut Marko can take a lot of credit when it comes to backing young drivers and getting them to F1. Marko was constantly on the lookout for the next big thing in the junior series. He himself would sit down with prospects and would decide there if they had what it takes to deliver the desired results in F1. Seven of the 20 drivers on the 2025 grid, Max Verstappen, Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz, Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, and Pierre Gasly, came through the Red Bull Programme, showing the lasting impact the programme has. 

Helmut Marko said the result of the 2025 season affected his decision to step away from the team. Verstappen barely missing out on his fifth championship affected him, especially since he was such a key supporter of Verstappen’s career.

With all of the positives Marko brought to the team, he was also often quite problematic. Marko is quite blunt and somewhat offensive with what he says and thus is not necessarily a well liked figure among F1 fans. 

One of his notable comments came in 2023 when former Redbull driver, Sergio Perez, was not performing as well as expected in the car. Marko said that Perez was “not as focused” as Max Verstappen because he was “South American." Marko was called out for the offensive remark as he implied that Perez’s heritage impacted his consistency and also because Perez is not South American, but rather from Mexico. Marko did later apologize, but only for incorrectly saying that Mexico is in South America and doubled down saying that “a Mexican has a different mentality than a German or a Dutchman.”

Marko also faced scrutiny after the first race of the season when Racing Bulls rookie, Isack Hadjar, was crying after crashing on the formation lap in his first ever F1 race. Marko called Hadjar “embarrassing” for showing emotion after the crash.

More recently, at the Qatar Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli was ahead of and was defending against  Lando Norris. Towards the end of the race Antonelli went wide at a turn which allowed for Norris to get by. Marko said that Antonelli let Norris pass which led to extreme online abuse and death threats for the 19 year old driver. Redbull later put out a statement stating that the comments were “incorrect” and that they did not support the online abuse the Mercedes driver was facing. 

Marko has also allegedly caused issues within Redbull. He supposedly signed Arvid Lindblad to Racing Bulls without anyone else’s knowledge or permission, upsetting many team members. Marko also allegedly signed Alex Dunne to the Junior Programme, again without permission, and Redbull apparently had to spend a lot of money buying Dunne out of the contract.