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Max Verstappen’s record-breaking rise has changed Formula 1 forever, but the man who helped give him his debut says the Dutchman has reshaped both ends of the racing pyramid.
Helmut Marko, known as the godfather of the Red Bull driver programme, is always on the lookout for the company’s next star driver. The Austrian played a pivotal role in ensuring that Verstappen made his Formula 1 debut in 2015 wearing the colours of Red Bull’s small Toro Rosso (now RB) team, not Mercedes.
Marko notices Verstappen’s legacy whenever he goes to the karting track to look for the next generation of world-class racers.
“People always say, ‘Oh, the Verstappen example,’ but it’s changed a lot,” Marko told ESPN of today’s emerging karting talent. “Now everyone thinks, ‘My son is the new Verstappen, I just have to follow the concept and he’ll get there.’
“Before Verstappen, when it was raining on the kart track, everyone would go to the cafeteria. And when Max became champion for the first time (in kart), everyone noticed that when it was raining there was only one driver outside: it was Verstappen.
“Now it’s the other way around, no one is in the cafeteria when it rains.”
Verstappen skipped the GP3 and GP2 classes of Formula 1 (now Formula 3 and Formula 2) before making his debut with the Red Bull Junior Team. At 17, he became the youngest driver in Formula 1 and the following season the youngest winner. He turns 28 at the end of September and looks likely to end the year with a fourth consecutive world championship.
However, it is a rare exception, difficult to imitate.
“People think they can do what Max did if they copy him, but we are not looking for a new Verstappen. We are looking for a new world champion. We were not looking for Vettel when we left (Sebastian) Vettel. When we saw Max, I immediately thought, ‘This is the guy we want to work with’,” Marko said.
“We calculate every year, at least 1,000 young drivers start in karting. And if you are lucky, on average you will move to Formula 1. And that is only if you are lucky. So the selection is very difficult. The chances of success are relatively small.”
Despite the difficulties, Red Bull has been the most prolific company in promoting young talent through the ranks to Formula 1. Verstappen followed in the footsteps of Vettel, who rose through the ranks as a Red Bull rookie to win four consecutive titles with the team. On the current grid, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly are race-winning talents who owe their rise to the programme with which Marko is closely associated.
Explaining the basic criteria for signing a young driver, Marko said: “We want a driver who can win the Grand Prix. Winning the Grand Prix is the goal, the objective, what we are looking for. (To win) the World Championship, many factors have to come together.”
Finding Academic Talent
The game has changed dramatically since Marko and Red Bull began watching Verstappen and Vettel as youngsters. Advances in technology have given teams more options, but Marko still prefers the old-fashioned approach of trusting his instincts.
“The main difference is that today you act more on data,” he said. “Before, you would watch a driver off the track; some people could see the difference straight away, while others could not.
“For me, I’m out on the track watching these drivers. There’s a big difference between how they react when they come in on the first lap or the second. I think the car control is something you can see straight away. From the data, you can tell if they’ve been driving for 20 or 40 laps, because they’re watching the data.
“But for me, the immediate reaction the first time we get in the car is the important thing. It’s also important how they react in fast corners. A sharp corner is a relatively simple thing, but in fast corners you see the differences.”
Another trend has changed the approach to the search for new talent. Formula 1 drivers have been getting younger and younger in recent times, with the average age of drivers this year at 27.2, a figure slightly inflated by the immortal duo of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. This demographic change is also reflected at the bottom of the pyramid.
Red Bull’s new additions to the Academy reflect this fact; following the recent Red Bull Driver Search, as the three-day event at Jerez was called, the company added 15-year-old Irishman Fionn McLaughlin and 14-year-old Swede Scott Lindblom to its Driver Academy. The two drivers stood out in a group of 10 drivers who were assessed in Formula 4 cars over the three days.
Red Bull has been doing this type of testing for years, but there are no guarantees of long-term success.
“As we speak, the age is getting younger and younger,” said Marko. “We have great people in karting, world champions in karting, but they are not successful in Formula One. Then you go up. Some are successful in Formula 4, they win championships, then they go up to Formula 3, but they are no longer competitive.”
“When you look at the formulas, there is natural selection. Some drivers can handle different speeds and different G-forces, some can’t. Some take two or three years in one category, which is certainly too long for our goal of finding a competitive Formula 1 driver.”
There’s an example closer to home. Academy driver Dennis Hauger, who won the Formula 3 title in 2021, has had three disappointing seasons in Formula 2 since then; by contrast, Hauger’s Red Bull team-mate Isaac Haggar is leading the F2 races this year. The Frenchman may have to join the waiting list if he wants a seat with any of the Red Bull teams soon, although Liam Lawson, who has not secured a race seat in 2024 despite an impressive five-race run in 2023, is still waiting for the company to decide on his future.
“We always look to the future,” said Marko. “What will it be like in three years? Where will Ricciardo go? Where will Lawson go? Where will Haggar be if he continues like this? If he does, we will have to find a place for him in Formula 1.”
Red Bull’s junior program faced a major moment in 2021 when the company signed Sergio Perez from Racing Point to replace Alex Albon. Since Ricciardo’s departure in 2018, the company had quickly moved on from Gasly and Albon and found itself without F1-ready talent waiting in the wings. Perez’s arrival was framed as a major departure from the philosophy set by company founder Dietrich Mateschitz, which was to take talent from within the company’s umbrella whenever possible. Yet even with Perez, there are Red Bull roots if you trace his career back far enough.
“We have known Checo (Pérez) for a long time. He was in a search team at Estoril… about 16 years ago. The fastest driver was Ricciardo, but in the long races, Checo was also there. But he was a bit far in qualifying… In 2021, we had a lot of young drivers who failed to be next to Max… We knew him, he won races, so we went with him,” said Marko.
Ironically, Perez and Ricciardo have been in the headlines this year because of the uncertainty surrounding their Red Bull futures. Perez enjoyed a surprise boost in confidence over the summer break, but his surge in form has opened the door to winning the constructors’ championship this year, and he still looks like he is on shaky ground. Ricciardo, who has returned to the Red Bull programme as a potential replacement for Perez, has been a disappointing Red Bull driver this year.
Red Bull’s reluctance to promote its next top young talent, Yuki Tsunoda, has added to the sense that the company’s youth program is no longer what it once was. This is another area where the game has changed too: Red Bull is no longer alone. Most of its competitors now have similar programs, and they are showing up in a big way right now.
Mercedes looks set to promote talented young driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who turns 18 on August 25, to a race seat as Hamilton’s replacement next year. George Russell, who signed up to Mercedes’ junior programme after being shown a PowerPoint presentation by company boss Toto Wolff, joins the team after a few years of development on loan at Williams. Ferrari academy driver Oliver Permane impressed on his debut at the Saudi Grand Prix and will play a full rookie season with Haas in 2025. Ferrari has already turned one academy driver, Charles Leclerc, into an established race winner.
Not all teams have been so sensible about developing their young talents up the ladder. Alpine had a bad time with Oscar Piastri when he was part of their programme and was snapped up by McLaren, who put him straight into a race seat in 2023. Piastri went on to win the Hungarian Grand Prix last month. McLaren signed his teammate Lando Norris at a young age and he was promoted to a race seat at a young age too, making his debut in 2019, when he was just 19.
Although rivals are now making strides forward with young drivers, Marko still feels that the best bet for any emerging talent remains Red Bull.
“Almost every team now has a junior programme. For example, some teams make ridiculous financial offers, and we say, ‘No, we won’t make that commitment.’ The big advantage that Red Bull has is that we have proven that we can bring young drivers into Formula 1. We have made two world champions through our programme. We are brave enough to bring young drivers.
“So it’s a difficult situation with others involved who are investing more money than we are, but as Mr Mateschitz always said when I discussed it with him, we can’t have all the players. So Antonelli is a great talent and he’s not with us, he’s with Mercedes. It’s good that other teams are bringing young talent into the business as well.”
With the landscape completely changed and more options than ever for young drivers, Red Bull does not seem prepared to completely change its approach to recruitment just to stay ahead of the pack.
“We will stick to our system,” Marco said. “Our financial terms and contracts. If they came today, they would have managers, advisors, lawyers. Our system works. We don’t change because your lawyer has to do something for his money. Our contract since we started with the youth programme is the same, it’s just a tweak for social media and all these legal things you have to put in the contract, but the basics are the same.”
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