Marko pours cold water on F1 retirement talk

May 8 (GMM) Dr Helmut Marko has poured cold water on increasing speculation that he could be set to imminently retire.

Red Bull’s long-time and powerful advisor stated recently that an ideal successor would be quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel – who did not rule out the scenario.

And on either side of his original comments about Vettel, rumours were already swirling about potential retirement for 82-year-old Marko, who only narrowly survived the management turmoil at Red Bull just a year ago.

However, when asked about the status of the talks with Vettel, the Austrian now tells Osterreich newspaper: “That was just an idea of mine.

“But it’s not ready for a decision – we’re still a long way from that,” Marko insisted. “I don’t know who wants to retire me at the end of the year, but I certainly don’t plan to do that yet.

“As they say, he who rests, rusts.”

Indeed, Marko is apparently already looking beyond 2025, which has already seen Liam Lawson demoted and replaced by Yuki Tsunoda.

“Yuki’s getting better and better,” Marko said. “He’s the first teammate (for Max Verstappen) who can even get a taste of Max’s performance.

“Unfortunately, when the pressure increases, he still makes mistakes.”

Rumours in Miami suggested that, with Honda’s support and power shifting to Aston Martin next year, Red Bull could be looking to make another driver change for 2026.

When asked about McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s new leadership of the world championship, Marko said: “I’m very impressed. He always stays cool and constantly puts pressure on to stay at the front. That’s refreshing.

“But I wouldn’t underestimate our (Isack) Hadjar,” he added, having also hailed the French rookie’s performance at Racing Bulls several times this year already.