Red Bull Chief Helmut Marko Called Racist for His Opinion on Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar’s Behavior

One of the paddock’s most polarizing figures, Helmut Marko is never too far away from making a controversial comment. With days until the new season begins, Marko is under the spotlight once again for all the wrong reasons.

Marko’s comments on Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar—the RB duo for 2025—have led to the community branding him ‘racist’.

Both Tsunoda and Hadjar have developed an infamous reputation in the paddock. Known for their fiery temperaments, they wear their emotions on their sleeves, often leading to heated radio outbursts. Red Bull worked hard to curb this trait in Tsunoda and will now aim to do the same with rookie Hadjar.

Marko, while addressing this, brought their ethnicities into the conversation.

“Yuki isn’t the typical Japanese like Iwasa, who bows five times and apologizes for wanting to say something,” the Red Bull chief advisor said to AMuS. “Tsunoda says what he thinks.” 

It could be Marko’s way of saying ‘Tsunoda is bold’, but it certainly didn’t sound very good. Then came the turn of Tsunoda’s teammate. “And Hadjar has a southern temperament.” 

As expected, social media started fuming, calling the 81-year-old for making racist comments. A user on X (formerly Twitter) accused F1 of ‘enabling racist rhetoric’.

This also wasn’t the first time the Red Bull taskmaster came under fire for comments with xenophobic or racist undertones. In the past, his harsh criticism of Sergio Perez drew significant backlash from fans online.

Marko remarked, “Let’s remember that he is South American, and so he is not as focused as Max Verstappen or Sebastian Vettel was,”—a statement that sparked widespread controversy. It even led to team principal and CEO, Christian Horner taking a dig at him by choosing not to associate him with Red Bull.

“He is not part of Red Bull Racing, that is why, we did not put out a statement,” Horner had remarked.

Marko isn’t the only Red Bull member who has faced backlash for questionable remarks. Notably, the Mongolian government strongly condemned Max Verstappen for using racist and derogatory language when he berated Lance Stroll over the team radio following an incident at the 2020 Portuguese GP.

During his outburst, Verstappen referred to the Canadian driver as a ‘Mongol,’ a slur that sparked calls for accountability.

With an already clouded reputation, incidents like Marko’s latest remarks only further tarnish Red Bull’s image. The F1 veteran has previously been labeled a PR nightmare by Horner. But how much longer can he continue walking around the paddock in a Red Bull jacket without consequences for his words?

Whether Horner or Red Bull will intervene this time remains to be seen.