The Champion Maker!

It has been reported that Red Bull advisor, Helmut Marko, is retiring at the end of this year. He has overseen Red Bull Racing’s driver development program since 2005 and provided the team with an incredible list of talent including four-time world champions Sebastain Vettel and Max Verstappen.

I have been holding a photo I took of Marko and Verstappen at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in 2005. At the time, Verstappen was driving for Toro Rosso, Red Bull’s junior team before being promoted to Red Bull the following year.

My co-author and I were sitting in Red Bull’s hospitality area waiting to interview Team Principle Christian Horner for the third edition of “Performance at the Limit, Business Lessons from Formula 1 Motor Racing.” It was not accepted practice to take photos ‘behind the scenes,’ so to speak, but I could not help reacting to the dynamics of what appeared to be a debriefing between Marko and Verstappen after the first free practice session that weekend.

Who knew what greatness lay ahead for Verstappen? It seems Marko did!