Source: REUTERS/HAMAD I MOHAMMED
[Saba Sports News] Helmut Marko, the chief advisor of the Red Bull F1 team, stated that signing Nyck de Vries was his “biggest mistake” as an advisor. Records show that Marko has played a key role in the Red Bull team since 2005, primarily responsible for the team’s youth training program. Specifically, this Austrian is responsible for deciding which young drivers the team signs and who will make their F1 debut with the Red Bull second team. Following Pierre Gasly’s decision to leave the Red Bull team at the end of 2022 and join Alpine, Red Bull faced a shortage of drivers. At this time, Marko chose not to give any young drivers a chance and opted to sign de Vries. At the 2022 F1 Italian Grand Prix, de Vries replaced Alexander Albon for the Williams team and scored points. However, de Vries performed poorly after securing a full-time driver seat for 2023. Ultimately, Daniel Ricciardo replaced de Vries after ten races. Marko noted that de Vries had an incredible record, being the FIA F2 champion and the electric formula world champion, but according to the team, the stopwatch indicated that de Vries was the wrong choice. In trying to run faster, he constantly made mistakes. From then on, Marko and the Red Bull team learned from this mistake and began promoting young drivers from the youth training department.