How Good was Helmut Marko as a Driver?

After two decades with Red Bull, Dr Helmut Marko will leave his role as an adviser, and at 82 years old, will leave a lasting legacy for helping sign two of Formula One’s greatest drivers in Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel.

(Image Credit to Red Bull Content Pool)

The majority of Formula One fans know Dr Helmut Marko for his work with the Red Bull team, which has been seen by many as brutal, sacking and demoting drivers like Roman Abramovich did to Chelsea managers.

Marko wasn’t always a talent scout, however. He himself was once a driver who raced against some of the greatest drivers to compete in the sport.

The Austrian grew up in Graz and was close friends with Jochen Rindt, as they were of a similar age - Marko being born in 1943 and Rindt in 1942 - and both had a mutual love of motorsport.

Marko initially wanted to be a lawyer, earning a doctorate in law at 24 from the University of Graz, but his aspirations grew for motorsport, especially after seeing Rindt's success in Grand Prix racing and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

He began racing in local events while getting his degree, before turning to professional racing in 1969. He competed in touring cars and Formula 3 races with some decent results, finishing fourth in the European Touring Car Championship in 1970 with 36 points and winning his class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Despite a lack of experience in single-seaters, Marko made his Formula One debut in 1971. After not qualifying for the German Grand Prix in a privateer McLaren owned by Jo Bonnier, he joined BRM, a team that was slowly declining.

BRM had been successful with Jo Siffert taking wins that year, but Marko was driving the older spec P153, which hadn’t scored points since the Mexican Grand Prix the previous year. 

The closest a driver got to scoring points in the P153 was Howden Ganley, who finished inside the top ten four times with a best finish of seventh. 

Marko on the other hand, didn’t achieve any top ten finishes in the three races with the car. He had one race with the better car, the P160. However, he was 1.7 seconds slower than Siffert in qualifying and 0.7 of a second slower than Ganley.

In the opening two races of 1972, Marko would still drive the P153, which by now was two years old and heavily outdated. He finished 10th in Argentina and 14th in South Africa. 

He missed the Spanish Grand Prix but returned for Monaco, where he had a strong performance by finishing eighth, finishing within a lap of two of the six points finishes. The Austrian followed this up with a 10th in Belgium.

His career came to an abrupt end when, at the French Grand Prix, he had a stone thrown from Ronnie Peterson’s March hit him, making him permanently blind in his left eye, ending what was a somewhat mediocre career in Formula One. 

However, in sports cars, Marko achieved something that most drivers in sports car racing hope to achieve: winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Six years after Rindt had won it and less than a year after the death of one of his closest friends in Rindt, Marko would put on a masterclass in driving with Gijs van Lennep. The duo, driving a Martini Porsche, won by two laps from teammates Dickie Attwood and Herbert Müller. 

They went on to set a distance record at Le Mans that year, which would stand for 39 years, with an average of 222 kmh (138.1 mph). The duo drove 5,335 km in the 24 Hours. 

Putting aside Marko’s management career, his overall career in motorsport was one of very mixed success.

On one hand, he was successful in sports car and touring car racing, but failed to make an impression on the Formula One scene. 

Perhaps if not for the injury, he could have taken podiums, but being a Grand Prix winner or even a champion would have been quite the stretch for Marko.

Overall, Marko was an average driver in single-seaters who was decent in sports cars. I would compare him to the likes of Jackie Oliver, Attwood and van Lennep. He was never going to reach the heights of Rindt or the heights reached by compatriot Niki Lauda, but he could say something that most wish they could: that he drove at the highest level and even won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Article  written by Liam Ploetner