Christian Horner and Helmut Marko go way back in their relationship with the Red Bull team. Both of them have seen great days and bad days with the Red Bull team as well as the sister team, Alpha Tauri. Helmut Marko has been playing the role of advisor of the Red Bull team since 2005. Moreover, Marko has been playing the same role with the sister F1 team since 2006. In the current season, Helmut Marko brought Nyck De Vries, another Dutchman, to Formula One. Moreover, De Vries joined Alpha Tauri and went on to race at ten Grands Prix. However, his F1 career did not last long like the others.
According to Helmut Marko, De Vries has not been fast enough and has shown no improvement in these ten races so far. The team Alpha Tauri did not feel confident enough to keep Nyck De Vries for any more races. Hence, Daniel Ricciardo will replace the Dutchman in Red Bull’s sister team for the remaining Grand Prix schedules. Moreover, in the short span of ten races, De Vries failed to score a single point. On top of that, Yuki Tsunoda, his teammate, beat De Vries by 8-2. It is a big margin and a far cry from what the team expected De Vries to do.
Christian Horner Blames Helmut Marko For Bringing De Vries To Their Program
On the other hand, Christian Horner has never been a big fan of De Vries. But it was Helmut Marko who brought him in. On the F1 Nation Podcast, Christian Horner revealed that he had doubts about Nyck De Vries, but his team’s advisor hastily made the decision. He believes that Nyck De Vries is a driver full of skills and has been a champion in Formula E and Formula 2. Moreover, De Vries has a lot of experience. But he is not a young driver per se. Hence, Christian Horner could never really understand how De Vries would fit into their program.
Moreover, the Red Bull boss explained that De Vries was just a patch. However, nobody can deny Nyck’s experience of motorsport. That’s why his debut in Formula One was of high anticipation. But Nyck De Vries disappointed all of them in Red Bull and Alpha Tauri. Hence, it became essential to let him go. Now the question is how will Daniel Ricciardo perform as Nyck’s replacement. It has been a long time since the Aussie raced in a Grand Prix. Moreover, Ricciardo will start his new Alpha Tauri career at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Helmut Marko’s Eye For Picking Talents Deserves Credit For Red Bull’s Success
Currently, Red Bull is enjoying hegemony on the grid. A lot of credit goes to Helmut Marko for bringing Max Verstappen to the Austrian team. At first, Max Verstappen joined Toro Rosso (Previous name of Alpha Tauri). Later as he showed vast improvement Red Bull senior team signed the Dutchman.
And what Max Verstappen has been making since 2021 is history for Christian Horner and his team. Moreover, Helmut Marko gets the credit for bringing more such talents to Red Bull and the sister team. Marko steered the careers of Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz Junior, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, and so on to Formula One.
