Marko explains why he denied Verstappen Nordschleife F1 run

The reigning two-time world champion revealed at the Canadian Grand Prix that his wish to complete an F1 demo run at the legendary venue was blocked by Marko. 

Red Bull reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will take part in the special event in September, while AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda will also appear, driving a Honda GT3 car. 

“I wanted to do it but I was not allowed from Helmut,” Verstappen said in Canada. “He knew I’d try to go to the limit. I would have loved to do it.

“I heard this thing was coming up and Helmut, because I think we were sitting at a table when it came up, he was like ‘no, no, no you’re not doing that’.”

Marko has now explained that it would be too high a risk to allow Verstappen to drive F1 machinery at the circuit. 

“It’s basically a show run, so you don’t have the time to set up the car,” Marko told the Inside Line F1 podcast.

“The Nurburgring Nordschleife is something really special. You have bumps, you’re jumping, and and and… there is the car, which is not specially done for it.

“And I know Max. He says he doesn’t care about records [but] he knows the record by the second and if he is driving there he is not going only to beat it, he wants to beat it in a big way.”

Marko stressed that Red Bull’s demonstration F1 car is “not prepared” for Verstappen to launch a record attempt. 

“It’s a high risk and that is really not necessary to take,” he added.

“And you can agree and he would say, ‘no, I won’t’ [but] as soon as he is in the car he would go for it.”