Drivers often follow orders from this good Doctor

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Today, we wish a happy birthday to Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko who turns 77-years-young.

The Graz-born Austrian, who holds a Doctors' degree in law, took part in nine Grand Prix races in the early 1970s with BRM, but failed to score any points.

However, he enjoyed success in sportscar racing, winning the 1971 Le Mans 24 Hours in a Porsche 917 with team mate Gijs van Lennep.

Unfortunately, the Austrian's racing career came to an abrupt halt in 1972, when a stone pierced Marko's helmet at the French Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand, permanently blinding his left eye.

These days of course he's best known as Red Bull's motorsport manager, overseeing the company's F1 activities but also its driver development program, a powerful role that can make or break young hopefuls' careers, and indeed it has...

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.