Marko: 'At least Checo survived two years already'
F1 News
Helmut Marko could not believe his luck in Montreal. Max Verstappen's victory at the Canadian Grand Prix was not only the 41st of his career for his protegee (putting the Dutchman on par with Ayrton Senna), it was also Red Bull Racing's 100th win in Formula 1. "I can't really believe it and I was really nervous before this race," said the Austrian team's consultant.
Finally, it was his 'baby' Red Bull that reached the huge number of 100 wins. In the podcast F1 Nation, Marko confessed: "I thought, oh it's a race like every race, but it wasn't. I'm really relaxed and relieved that we achieved it, but still it's unbelievable. When we bought Jaguar, or we got Jaguar, we didn't really put much money on the table. The boss [Dieter Mateschitz] said, let's try it and maybe we win a Grand Prix. I'm so sad that he can't see what we achieved today."
Red Bull does not buy stars
Mateschitz passed away last year. So he is not experiencing Red Bull's new milestone himself. "He was never saying, oh we are the greatest or fantastic. He was always modest. But he enjoyed it and he was really proud of what Formula 1, what the team achieved. And also, you know, our philosophy to do it differently. We took Christian Horner as a team principal who didn't have any experience. And we also decided we don't buy stars. We build or we educate our own drivers. So four times world champion with Sebastian was already so now it looks like it's come to a story which will have even more success.," Marko said.
No less than 41 out of 100 wins came in Max Verstappen's name. Sergio Perez, his current teammate, came to five wins. Given the proportions, one might think Red Bull is a one-man team. Marko immediately countered by saying, "Mercedes had how many wins with Hamilton?", referring to the Brit who won many times more often than his teammates.
The Austrian continued: "I think Max is such a strong driver that at least Checo survived two years already. You have to see it in this way. I mean, today it was a significant podium. I think the three best drivers of this time were on the podium."