Helmut Marko Laughs at Mercedes Boss for Horrible Taste in Drivers After Choosing 1x GP Winner Over Max Verstappen

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has never been shy in voicing his thoughts. Though opinions surrounding Red Bull have agitated the 80-year-old, talks about Toto Wolf and company seem to make Marko nostalgic. In a recent interview, the RB headmaster reminisced on Toto Wolf’s pessimism about the talent of Max Verstappen early in the Dutchman’s career.

Looking back to 2014, Helmut Marko recounted an intriguing tale in which the Mercedes head was skeptical of Verstappen’s racing abilities and instead signed the Frenchman Esteban Ocon. This would eventually smooth down the way for the RBR to sign one of today’s Formula One beasts.

Certainly, this decision might have been Wolff’s biggest regret. Given that Verstappen has been crowned champion three times since 2014, he has earned a spot on the elite list by winning 49 races. Whereas Esteban Ocon continues to battle to etch his name in the annals of F1 history with only 1 Grand Prix win in the Hungarian GP back in 2021.

Details underlining Wolff’s previous skepticism for Verstappen’s potential

Helmut Marko recently told the Austrian newspaper Osterreich that Toto Wolff and Gerhard Berger put an end to the fascination surrounding Verstappen nine years ago. These are the same men who were among the first to recognize the talent of Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Newey, both of whom led their teams to new heights.

However, when Marko himself equated Verstappen to Ayrton Senna, both Wolff and Berger failed to recognize the genius of Verstappen. Given the Dutchman’s ascend through the ranks, he has won three championships, which is as many as Senna clinched, proving Marko’s analysis to be correct. Despite this fact, both Wolff and Berger held opposing views at the time.

 

In his conversation, Marko said how both the F1 knowns rejected the notion of the recognizable talent of Verstappen and didn’t share Marko’s euphoria, “At the time, Mr Wolff didn’t share my euphoria about Max at first. When I made the comparison with Senna, even Berger told me that it was over. At the time, Toto said that talent was not recognizable, and he took Ocon to his team.” However, over time, Verstappen proved Toto Wolff and Gerhard Berger’s analyses wrong, and the former now regrets not signing the 3-time champion.

Toto Wolff discusses his plight on not signing Max Verstappen

Ahead of getting announced as a Red Bull junior driver, Verstappen and his father discussed the Dutchman’s future with Wolff in August 2014. The Silver Arrows lineup at the time included Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Unlike Red Bull, the Silver Arrows was about to embark on a period of exceptional success. However, the lack of a junior squad at the German firm led the 16-year-old Verstappen to go home disappointed.

Verstappen then joined Red Bull junior squad Toro Rosso (now Alpah Tauri) in 2015 and continued on his way to success. Later, in 2021, the Dutchman defeated seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. In a recent interview with ESPNF1, Toto Wolff expressed about missing out on potential grandeur like Verstappen. The Austrian discussed the regret he experienced following his decision to send away the 16-year-old with an empty hand.

The Mercedes boss said, “ Do I regret missing out on Max? Certainly. But it wasn’t an option back in the day. We had two drivers that I was extremely happy with, in Nico and Lewis, and when Nico left [at the end of 2016], Valtteri [Bottas] was then the option, and Max wasn’t even available.”

Hence, Max Verstappen‘s career trajectory is a stunning example of how a young talent broke into Formula One to demolish every record in the sport’s history, with only the number of titles records left to be broken. His accomplishment may be attainable to a certain degree thanks to the Red Bull development program’s strong support. Ocon, on the other hand, has experienced a challenging voyage with only one win and three podiums.