“Our success speaks for itself. There is no need to worry that Red Bull will disappear from Formula 1 in the near future,” said Marko in an interview with the “Sport Bild” magazine (Wednesday edition). “We are far from finished with our mission.”
After the death of company founder Dietrich Mateschitz in October, Oliver Mintzlaff from Bundesliga soccer club RB Leipzig moved to one of the company’s three managing director positions. The 47-year-old has been responsible for Red Bull’s sports activities in football, ice hockey and Formula 1 since mid-November.
future remains uncertain
According to Marko, it is still unclear what the cooperation between the Formula 1 racing team and Mintzlaff will look like. “Our biggest plus has always been that we have many bright minds who don’t need a meeting with the supervisory board before anything can be initiated,” said the 79-year-old. “We’ll see what that looks like in the future. We’ll discuss in the coming weeks how we’ll split up and what role Mr. Mintzlaff will play.” So far he has only met Mintzlaff for a cup of coffee.
At the season finale in Abu Dhabi a week and a half ago, Marko and team boss Christian Horner had a longer chat with Mintzlaff. In the coming season, Marko sees the former series world champion Mercedes with record champion Lewis Hamilton as the strongest competitor and not Ferrari with World Cup runner-up Charles Leclerc. “But I’m not really worried,” he said. “We are on the right track for 2023 and with Max we have the best driver in the field.”
