Marko vindicated over team's 'brave' risk signing Verstappen

Red Bull Racing motorsports consultant Dr Helmut Marko can take the lion's share of the credit for discovering and signing Max Verstappen when he was still a teenager - a decision that he admits could have backfired badly.

Red Bull signed Verstappen to a deal when he was still just 16. He made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso at the 2015 Australian GP at the tender age of 17 years and 166 days, breaking the record for the youngest driver in the history of F1.

While he quickly made an impact in the sport, he wasn't an instant success with inevitable early mistakes and a bruising driving style on track that ruffled feathers and made enemies among other drivers.

But once everything clicked, Verstappen soon became unassailable. His last-lap victory in the 2021 world championship was followed by a second title in 2022, and he currently leads this year's standings by a massive 125 points.

If it hadn't turned out so well for Verstappen and for Red Bull as a whole, Marko says it would have been easy for the team and him in particular to come under fire for their decision to sign him at such an young age.

"What if something had happened? Of course, the public would have fallen over us then," he told Young Economist. "The system also changed after that, you have to be 18 years old now [to be eligible for a superlicence.]"

• Read also: Perez pay-cut story 'made up out of thin air', says Marko

But even at the time, Marko was sure that Verstappen would prove to be a once in a generation talent up there with the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna.

"With Verstappen it was already obvious," Marko explained, saying it had been clear from the way he had dominated kart racing as a youth resulting in Marko advising Max's father Jos to skip junior championships and go straight to F1.

"I already had conversations with Verstappen," he recalled. "I mentioned Formula 3 and other classes, but then I told Jos: 'Forget it, we'll do Formula 1.'

"That was quite brave at the time," he admitted. "Nothing could be heard on the phone for a while, that's how surprised he was!

"It worked out sensationally at the time," he added. "He did some stupid things, but others are still doing that at the age of 22. The proof is there.

"You find a driver like that once every ten years. That's something extraordinary."

Verstappen completed 23 races with Toro Rosso before getting an early-season promotion to the senior Red Bull team at the 2016 Spanish GP alongside Daniel Ricciardo, which proved to be his first race victory.

Qualifying proved a weak link in Verstappen's armoury until he finally achieved his first pole at the 2019 Hungarian GP. Since then he's started from the front of the grid in 27 of a total of 175 races, and claimed 45 wins.

Still only 25, it's easy to imagine him catching and passing Lewis Hamilton's tally of 104 poles and 103 victories in the years remaining ahead of him in F1 - maybe even surpassing Hamilton and Schumacher's joint record of seven titles.

It's no surprise that Marko is feeling vindicated over his decision to sign Verstappen to the team, having already brought four-time champion Sebastian Vettel to the Red Bull family in 2007.

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter