Marko reveals a background story: “Horner was against Verstappen’s promotion to Red Bull”

First race in Red Bull, first victory Ten years have recently passed since that historic victory for Max Verstappen on his debut in Red Bull in the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, when the Dutchman surprised everyone by climbing to the top step of the podium at the age of 18 years and 7 months. Even today, that success represents the record of the youngest driver of all time to have won a GP, also favored by a sensational contact at the start between Hamilton and Rosberg, then teammates in Mercedes and dominators of the championship. In retrospect, the choice of Verstappen’s promotion from Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) to Red Bull to replace Daniil Kvyat seemed almost obvious, despite the future four-time world champion’s debut in F1 at just 17 years old. The problem, however, was another. Not everyone agrees Yes, because the transition to the Milton Keynes team was not easy: Helmut Marko, who saw Verstappen’s growth and talent firsthand in his Red Bull Junior Team, encountered strong resistance within the team, against the Dutchman’s arrival. Among these, team principal Christian Horner rejected the Austrian manager’s choice to promote Verstappen, and Marko himself recalled this in an interview with De Telegraaf: “Max’s teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr., was very disappointed by our choice, but for us it was a clear and simple decision. Horner did not agree with Max’s promotion after just four races in 2016, he was against it. Just as many rivals and critics attacked me, saying that Max was too young and that this was a risky move.” Criticisms rejected The final decision, however, was taken after the 2016 Russian GP, when Kvyat made mistakes which, together with the unconvincing performances at the beginning of the year, brought the Dutchman to Red Bull in Barcelona: “Kvyat crashed twice in that race – Marko recalled – the year before he had however obtained good results, sometimes even better than Ricciardo, especially in the wet. But in 2016 he was no longer the same driver and from the first day of testing he was complaining about the brakes [Verstappen] he had already guessed it. He called me back and asked me something like: ‘Should we come to Graz?’. I deliberately avoided saying what it was about, but the next day we were already together in Austria. We knew we would get a lot of criticism. But luckily both Jos and I were used to this type of attacks.” A decision that turned out to be correct for both Marko and the late Dietrich Mateschitz, with the two winning the bet to bring the very young talent to Red Bull: “It was an incredible race. The Mercedes accident was certainly a bit lucky, but immediately afterwards Max showed all his class. He was faster than teammate Ricciardo and in the closing stages Kimi Raikkonen was within a second of him lap after lap. Even though Kimi was faster on the straights, he couldn’t overtake Max because he drove intelligently and maturely. Even Jos and Max’s manager, Raymond Vermeulen, could hardly believe it. For me personally, and also for Dietrich, it was a huge relief. People thought we were crazy, but now we could silence all the critics.”

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News , 2026-05-21 04:45:00