For Helmut Marko, Carlos Sainz is one of the “top people” in Formula 1 – the fact that it didn’t work out for him at Red Bull has only one reason and that is Max Verstappen
For some time now, the Red Bull juniors have been the strongest junior squad in the premier class. A look at the starting grid for the 2021 Formula 1 season shows this, as seven of the 20 drivers are from the Red Bull junior squad.
Among them is Carlos Sainz, who contested his first years in Formula 1 with Toro Rosso and, after stints with Renault and McLaren, switched to Ferrari last season. He could well have had a career with Red Bull, had it not been for a certain Max Verstappen.
Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko told the Austrian ‘Autorevue’: “Sainz was unlucky to meet Verstappen at the decisive moment.” The Dutchman was Sainz’s teammate in the 2015 season. In 2016, he was promoted to the senior team at Red Bull after just four races.
“We already saw at the first test in Silverstone that he is super fast straight away,” Marko said of Sainz. “He was almost on the same level as Verstappen. Almost. But then when we had the choice between Verstappen and Sainz, it was clear. “
Marko recalls, “They were both disappointed, but the father the most. We lent him to Renault first because our contract was still running. Sainz is certainly one of the top drivers. He has proved that. In my eyes, he has disenchanted Leclerc.”
For in his first season with Ferrari, Sainz scored four of the five podiums for the Scuderia and finished fifth in the world championship standings, two places ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc, who has already been driving for the Reds since 2019. “In terms of speed, Sainz was there, Leclerc just had a lot of accidents,” Marko judged.
“And at McLaren you saw that Norris is the one of the youngsters who has established himself best. And Sainz absolutely kept up with him,” says the motorsport advisor, summing up Sainz’s time at McLaren, for whom the Spaniard’s third-place finish in Brazil in 2019 was his first podium in five years.