Marko: “What if I was wrong about the drivers? Yes, but never in letting them leave Red Bull”

What the Austrian manager said Red Bull will experience a zero year in 2026 from many points of view. The Milton Keynes team will make its debut as an engine manufacturer and will do so without the ‘old guard’ at management level because neither Christian Horner nor Helmut Marko are no longer on the command deck of Red Bull. The Austrian veteran for years oversaw the youth program that provided drivers not only to Red Bull and Racing Bulls, but also to many other teams because the four seats in the Red Bull galaxy were not enough in times of abundance in terms of talent produced. Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly, for example, have all sought their fortune elsewhere with more or less satisfactory results. When asked if and what mistakes he had made in the choices and management of the drivers, Helmut Marko responded thus: “Have I ever been wrong about the drivers? Yes, of course, but never in letting them leave Red Bull – the words of Marko, guest of the podcast Beyond the Grid – on the contrary, I was wrong many times in focusing on some drivers who I thought were very strong and who then got lost once they arrived in F1. They believed that everything was easier when they arrived in a category where they even wear helmets, but in reality it is precisely in F1 that the pressure multiplies because you have to give your all in every lap and many drivers have collapsed crushed by this weight.” Marko has only one regret as a driver that has escaped his radar and it is the one who will take to the track in Melbourne as the reigning world champion: “I believe that Lando Norris would have been very happy in Red Bull, unfortunately the negotiations never went beyond a first contact in terms of negotiations.”