Helmut Marko names axed F1 star his “biggest mistake” as Red Bull advisor

Helmut Marko has named signing Nyck De Vries his “biggest mistake” as Red Bull’s F1 advisor.

Marko has played a key role at Red Bull since 2005, looking after their junior programme.

The Austrian is often responsible for deciding which young drivers are signed to the team and who makes their F1 debut with Racing Bulls (formerly AlphaTauri and Toro Rosso).

Following Pierre Gasly’s decision to leave the team at the end of 2022 for Alpine, Red Bull faced a driver shortage.

They refused to give the seat to any of their junior drivers, opting to sign De Vries.

De Vries scored points in his one-off appearance for Williams in place of Alex Albon at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix.

However, the Dutchman struggled to perform when given the full-time seat for 2023.

Daniel Ricciardo ultimately replaced him after just 10 races.

“My biggest mistake? No doubt about it, it’s Nyck De Vries,” Marko told Autosprint.

“He did very well on his debut for Williams in Monza. But once he got to AlphaTauri, he didn’t progress.

“He had an incredible track record, FIA F2 champion, also Formula E world champion, but with us the stopwatch said Nyck was the wrong choice. And in trying to go faster, he made mistakes.”

Marko and Red Bull have learned from their mistakes, opting to promote from within for F1 2025.

Liam Lawson has replaced Sergio Perez alongside Max Verstappen, while Isack Hadjar has joined Yuki Tsunoda at RB.

Red Bull’s successful junior programme

Red Bull’s junior programme has been incredibly successful.

Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen came through it, winning multiple world titles with Red Bull.

Ricciardo won seven of his eight races with the team, while Gasly was victorious with their junior outfit in 2020.

Carlos Sainz left the Red Bull family to enjoy a great career with Renault, McLaren, and, more recently, Ferrari.

Eight drivers on the current F1 grid have been part of the Red Bull junior programme at some point in their careers.

Verstappen, Sainz, Gasly, Albon, Tsunoda, Hadjar, Lawson and Jack Doohan are the eight drivers.