“He was almost at the same level as Verstappen”: Helmut Marko believes Carlos Sainz could have had a great career at Red Bull if he hadn’t come across Max Verstappen

Helmut Marko feels that Carlos Sainz was ‘unlucky’ to have Max Verstappen as his teammate during his early days at Red Bull. 

Sainz started his F1 career with Toro Rosso, Red Bull’s sister team. The Madrid born driver made his debut for the team in 2015 and teamed up with Max Verstappen for his maiden campaign.

The two drivers had some nervy moments together as partners and as Marko revealed, their respective fathers felt that the team was prioritizing the other driver more.

It’s no secret that Marko is a huge fan of Sainz. The Red Bull advisor has repeatedly lauded the Spaniard for his consistency and race craft and in a recent interview, admitted that they would have loved for Sainz to succeed at the team.

However, Marko feels that the current Ferrari driver was unlucky in his early F1 days. Sainz and Verstappen’s driver pairing was strong on paper, but both of them wanted to be the ‘main man’ at the Austrian team. In the end, they decided to focus on Verstappen and let Sainz go.

Marko went on to say that if it hadn’t been for Verstappen, Sainz would have gone on to become Red Bull’s main driver in the coming years. “Sainz was unlucky to meet Verstappen at a crucial moment,” he said.

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Carlos Sainz is one of the top drivers in Formula 1, says Helmut Marko

Sainz’s first season with Ferrari has caught the world of F1 by storm. Many expected him to struggle in teammate Charles Leclerc’s shadows but the 27-year old stomped on those predictions.

In the end, he finished P5 in the standings with four podiums, ahead of Leclerc in P7. Marko insists that the former McLaren star’s debut season, ‘disenchanted’ Leclerc’s status in the team.

“We already saw in the first test at Silverstone he was super-fast right away. He was almost at the same level as Verstappen. Almost,” said the 78-year old.

“But when we had the choice between Verstappen and Sainz, it was clear. Both were disappointed, but his father the most. We loaned him out to Renault first because our contract was still running.”

“Sainz is definitely one of the top people,” he added. “He’s proven that. In my eyes, he disenchanted Leclerc. “He was there in terms of speed, Leclerc just had a lot of accidents.”

“And at McLaren you saw Norris is the one of the boys who has established himself best. Sainz absolutely kept up with him,” the Austrian chief concluded.

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