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Former Red Bull junior Jack Crawford has described his experience of working with Helmut Marko as brutally honest and a bit unfair at times. The young American raced in F2 last season and was part of the Austrian team's driver academy. In what seems to have been a conscious decision taken by the team, the number of junior drivers has been cut dramatically.
For Crawford, it was a case of him losing out on a slot as the Red Bull junior academy driver after his first season in F2. The first season saw the American win a race and score a couple of podiums as well. He ended the season 13th in the championship and hence found himself booted out. Talking to Racer magazine, Crawford was questioned on his views of working with Helmut Marko.
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The young American had a lot of expected things to say about the Austrian as Marko has made his name as being the tough taskmaster that he is. Hinting that maybe Marko's absence in the F2 paddock hinders his perception, Crawford said:
“I think the hardest things are obviously the pressure and expectation that is set on you. He puts a lot of faith in his drivers, but he also expects a lot. And sometimes, if you’re not directly in the F2 paddock, knowing what’s going on, it can be difficult to tell with regards to team performance or driver performance and stuff like that. So sometimes that can play a factor in how he sees things."
Talking about how a bad weekend leads to a personal call from Helmut Marko where he can be brutally honest about everything, Crawford said:
"But definitely the biggest thing is, the last thing you want is to have a bad weekend and receive a phone call from Helmut to say to come meet him. He’s very busy, so you end up waiting on him. And then you sit there and he just walks up, and then he says, ‘So…’ in a very deep voice! Then he asks ‘What happened?’ And his conversations are very short, very straight to the point."
He added:
“Sometimes he’s brutally honest. That’s the right way to say it. Sometimes it can be too brutally honest, where it can be unfair at times, if you want to say, but it’s not so bad. To me it was very, very short, and very to the point.”
Red Bull's chief advisor has been notorious for being very strict on young drivers
The Red Bull chief advisor has always been known for being very strict with young drivers. This is just how he's run the operation and this has produced some brilliant talents like Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, and Carlos Sainz as well.
On the other hand, there are a few Red Bull drivers who have not been able to make it with the Helmut Marko way of working. Some of the names that stand out are Jaimie Algersuari, Sebastian Buemi, and others. The system is certainly ruthless and when it comes to F1 it adds another level of burden.
The system has however worked for Red Bull and it's hard to see Helmut Marko making changes to it now after decades of experience.
