8 Years, 2 Titles and 45 Wins Later, Red Bull Boss Mulls Over Risky Max Verstappen Drafting: “What if Something Had Happened?”

Red Bull made a bold move when they signed Max Verstappen for Toro Rosso back in 2015 when the Dutchman was just 17 years old. Even though this was an audacious move that could have turned south, it seems to have paid off. Verstappen came through the junior ranks at Red Bull to join the senior team and has now spent 8 years with the side. Plus, he has won 2 world titles and guided Red Bull to 45 wins. Now that their decision to sign Verstappen has proved to be successful, Red Bull’s chief advisor Helmut Marko has now given his take on the same.

Even though Marko has always praised Verstappen, he admitted that the double world champion has made several mistakes during his career as well. Despite the same, Marko believes that it is Verstappen‘s “character, commitment, self-confidence, and charisma” that stands out.

A perfect weekend in Spa 🇧🇪 We’ve been on it from start to finish @redbullracing 💪 The car was great 🚀

Thank you Orange Army, your support has been unreal 🙌 #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/05mFAL5FWG

— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) July 30, 2023

The 80-year-old made these comments in an interview with the Red Bull Bulletin last year, a time when he also compared Verstappen to Ayrton Senna. Soon after, in another interview with oe24.com, Marko also explained how people laughed at him when he made these comparisons. With time, he believed that Verstappen has proved the naysayers wrong.

Marko’s decision to sign Max Verstappen also shocked Jos

In a recent interview with the Young Economist, Helmut Marko has explained how his decision to sign Max Verstappen directly to F1 from F3 also shocked the Dutchman’s father, Jos Verstappen. As quoted by racingnews365.nl, the 80-year-old said, “I already had conversations with Verstappen then. I mentioned Formula 3 and other classes, but then I said to Jos: ‘forget it, we’re doing Formula 1‘”.

After stating the same, Marko explained Jos’ reaction by adding, “That was pretty brave at the time. There was nothing on the phone for a while. He (Jos) was so surprised“. After Marko made this decision, the 25-year-old skipped F2 to directly join F1 in 2015 with Toro Rosso. The Austrian believes that it was worth taking such a risk as Max was “something extraordinary“.

However, he did admit that his decision could have backfired massively as well. “What if something had happened? Of course the public would have fallen over us then. The system was also adjusted afterwards, you now have to be eighteen years old (for Formula 1),” added Marko.

After stating the same, Marko concluded his remarks by stating that even though Verstappen did some “stupid things,” he believes the same is only par for the course, and that some other drivers are still doing the same even at 22 and older. While Max has undoubtedly proven his talent by now, perhaps what was most impressive about him was that even at 17, the Red Bull management did not believe that they needed to coach him.

Max impressed the Red Bull management soon after he signed for them

Fabiana Valenti, who was the head of communications at Toro Rosso when Max Verstappen signed for the team, explained how the Dutchman was very impressive from the very beginning. As quoted by news.verstappen.com, she described how Verstappen seemed well prepared while giving interviews even though he was just 17 at the time.

She then went on to add how Verstappen was already ahead of others at the time as many usually take a while to get accustomed to the lifestyle of an F1 driver. Therefore, considering that Verstappen was so impressive from the get-go, he always had what it took to reach the top of F1.