Helmut Marko may no longer have a Red Bull job title attached to his name, but the old habits clearly haven’t gone anywhere.
Nikola Tsolov revealed this week that Marko sent him a message after his Formula 2 feature race victory in Melbourne — a small detail, on the surface, but one that underlines how the Red Bull talent machine still carries Marko’s fingerprints even after his official departure at the end of 2025.
“Actually, he texted me congratulations after the win in Australia, which was nice to see,” Tsolov said. “So he still follows it, even though it was very early in Europe. So I’m glad to see he is still very passionate about it.
“I’m sure he’s still involved in some of the stuff. It’s good to see him. I kind of miss him sometimes, actually.”
That last line lands because it speaks to a reality inside Red Bull’s junior programme: for all the hard edges of the Marko era, a lot of drivers knew exactly where they stood. For a young driver trying to make sense of the noise that surrounds a big academy, that clarity can be valuable — even if it occasionally came with a sting.
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has already indicated that Marko hasn’t been cut off from the operation, describing him as “open and available” to provide guidance when needed. In other words, he might not be in the building anymore, but he’s still very much on the contact list.
For Tsolov, the timing is neat. Melbourne wasn’t just a good weekend; it was a statement. The Bulgarian rookie didn’t arrive in Formula 2 promising a slow burn. He won the season-opening feature race and now heads to Miami leading the early championship standings — a position he admitted he didn’t expect to occupy quite so quickly.
“To be fully honest, I wasn’t expecting to be leading that early on,” Tsolov said. “So for me, it’s now just trying to keep it consistent, trying to maintain what we’ve been doing. Obviously it’s been working, which is probably the most important thing to know, and keep it up for the rest of the year.”
There’s an interesting psychological shift that happens when you start a season with a win, especially as a rookie. You arrive expecting to learn the rhythms of the category — tyres, race craft, the pit window games — and suddenly you’re no longer “one to watch”, you’re the one everyone is watching. That changes the way rivals race you, the way teams speak about you, and the way small mistakes are judged.
Miami, then, is less about protecting a points lead and more about proving Melbourne wasn’t a one-off. And Miami is a curious place for that test, because Formula 2 is making its first trip to North America. That means one of the usual rookie disadvantages — unfamiliar venues — is softened. Everybody starts from the same blank page.
“Obviously for me, it’s very exciting to have a new track on the calendar,” Tsolov said. “We all start from zero, which is quite good for me as a rookie.
“I believe I’ve prepared quite well on the sim. Some work on the preparation comes from F1 as well, watching what they’ve done over the past few years at this track. It seems like an exciting new challenge, which I’m ready to take on, and just can’t wait to get it started already after the break.”
Miami also begins a North American double-header for F2, with Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve up next. Two new circuits in quick succession can scramble the normal pecking order — and that makes consistency, the word Tsolov keeps coming back to, even more precious.
As for Marko, the image of him awake at an unkind hour in Europe, checking in on an F2 feature race and firing off a terse congratulatory text, feels completely on brand. Red Bull has moved into a new phase post-2025, with different faces running the day-to-day and a new internal tone to match. But the programme’s foundational instincts — identifying talent early, pushing it hard, and keeping tabs on it relentlessly — don’t vanish overnight.
Tsolov’s message from Marko is proof of that. Whatever the organisational chart says in 2026, Marko is still watching. And if you’re a Red Bull junior leading Formula 2 after one round, you can be sure you’re not just on the grid in Miami — you’re on the radar, too.
