The pre-eminent voice in Formula 1 when it comes to developing drivers, it appears that Helmut Marko’s powers may well be dwindling.
The Red Bull executive is revered in motorsport for unearthing elite young talent, like Jaime Alguersuari, who talkSPORT.com was lucky enough to speak to.
The Toro Rosso driver became F1’s youngest ever at 19-years-old in 2009 due to a mega junior career, and later saw that record broken by a 17-year-old Max Verstappen.
Verstappen, the four-time world champion, is one of Marko and Red Bull’s greatest successes, much like Sebastian Vettel, but in 2025, following up that act has proved to be tricky.
Having cut ties with Ferrari-developed Sergio Perez at the end of 2024, Red Bull called up Liam Lawson from their Racing Bulls sister team, but have incredibly sent him back after just two races in a swap with Yuki Tsunoda.
That brutal call was made in record time for Red Bull, and fell in line with another similarly brutal moment at the Australia opener when Marko called rookie Isack Hadjar ‘embarrassing’ for seemingly crying over a formation lap crash.
Famously keen to use the stick instead of the carrot, the 81-year-old later said you can’t show weakness or your competitors will exploit it, but Alguersuari isn’t so sure that mentality is still relevant.
“I don’t think Helmut has changed,” he began. “I think Formula 1 has changed, but I think Helmut Marko hasn’t changed and he won’t change. He has no interest in changing.
“I think things have worked for Red Bull so far and for Helmut, but I’m not sure if it’ll work for the next ten years in terms of having this method or this mindset with drivers.
“You see what happened to Hadjar and you see two different reactions from two different people. You see Anthony Hamilton and you see Helmut Marko. Anthony had no interest in this kid, just that he just personally felt so bad for him and he went to support him and he gave him his love and support as a dad. He felt like his dad.
“And this is the way to move forward, thinking positive and optimistic. Then you have the other side being evil and just laughing at you, which is the way Helmut Marko has performed and is well known for doing that.
“I don’t think it’s the way to behave because it’s quite natural and expected that you can be emotional in this certain situation.
“He made a huge mistake. But it was actually not that difficult to make it, as you could see other experienced drivers made that mistake in a very similar circumstance. So it can happen.”
Recalling his own experiences with the Austrian executive, Alguersuari explained how putting pressure on a driver can pay off, albeit over a decade ago.
“I have to say that Helmut Marko made my life, he was my university,” the Barcelona native admitted.
“I’m not his friend, but I don’t regret that he put so much pressure on me because he made me stronger.
“We didn’t have a friendship relationship because we didn’t have to, but he put me into that zone.
“I remember in 2008, British Formula 3, where I was just fighting for the championship in the last race at Donnington Park, and he literally called me before the weekend.
“That phone call wasn’t a support call. It was actually a threatening call. And he actually said, if you don’t win the championship, you’re out of the program. So that was the end of my career. And it was a one minute call – and I won the championship.”
Marko crafted Alguersuari into a regular point scorer in F1 with then-called junior team Toro Rosso, despite a car that was at times 1.5 seconds off the main Red Bull.
He and the Austrian-British squad have also been responsible for bringing race-winning talents like Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz into the sport.
However, in recent years such success has been hard to come by, best shown in 2023 when instead of developing drivers, they hired a 27-year-old Nyck de Vries for the junior squad, before replacing him with a 32-year-old Ricciardo.
Marko also made unwanted headlines in 2023 with a comment about Perez’s mentality as a South American, something Lewis Hamilton called ‘completely unacceptable’.
Discussing incidents such as those, Alguersuari added: “I have to say, Helmut Marko at the moment maybe could kind of learn some things that he could avoid.
“I actually think Formula 1 and the FIA should penalise some of the comments because you can be tough and you can be very disciplined or whatever, but you can’t be offensive to cultures, to religions and to whole countries.
“It’s penalised in football, it’s penalised in many sports and it should be penalized in Formula 1 for the sake, for the good, and for the image of F1.
“This has to be a transparent sport and we all develop as human beings and sports and athletes and teams. So this has to be clean and fair. So there’s this balance.
“As I said, I do defend Helmut Marko in a way, but in another way, I would criticise some of the comments and aspects of him.”
Alguersuari himself is one of the few to stand up to the Austrian, in a moment caught by cameras at the 2011 Korean Grand Prix.
He had just rejected an offer from Lotus for the following season, and after showing his commitment to Red Bull, wanted a chance to get a solid practice lap in as his team were competing for position in the constructors’ championship.
Alguersuari twice saw his laps ruined by Vettel – who was already drivers’ champion with the senior team – and when he came around for the third time, the Spaniard decided not to move over.
“Helmut obviously started yelling at me on the radio. And the next thing I knew is just when I’m back in the pits, I found Helmut Marko’s face yelling at me and Franz Tost [team principal] and the whole team saying that this is not acceptable,” Alguersuari remembered.
“He would never actually listen to me and let me explain to him that I let him by already twice and that he missed the breaking point twice.
“And whatever, it’s a free practice. He’s world champion already. And come on, let’s not make this drama bigger. I understand the situation, but you have to understand the circumstances that this happened.
“Anyway, I finished P7 on Sunday. It was a great race. I would say we passed Nico Rosberg in the last lap. We made good points. And then everything was solved. We hugged each other, me and Helmut.
“Everything was good again. So I know many people would think that it was the reason why I was sacked, but it was not.”
F1Alguersuari stood up to Marko in front of the cameras[/caption]
Alguersuari and teammate Sebastian Buemi were dropped for the following season, a decision many in the paddock thought was harsh.
Yet should Lawson or Hadjar find themselves in such a position with Marko, Alguersuari has some stern advice.
“His physical image is quite scary for a lot of drivers and people, and reporters,” he explained.
“He shouldn’t scare you. He’s an old Austrian man with a lot of experience and knowledge of racing or whatever. But come on, man, just to stand up to him if you think you have a point.”
