Marko on Verstappen and Vettel: 'We don't buy stars, we make them'

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Helmut Marko on F1 drivers Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel
6 September at 19:00
7
  • Jeroen Immink

Helmut Marko has helped introduce many stars to Formula 1, including Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel. The Austrian helped train both drivers for Red Bull Racing, and they eventually became world champions. In the F1 podcast Inside Line, Marko explains the path taken by both Verstappen and Vettel.

Marko admits: 'Newey was the most important change'

"We wanted to do it differently," Marko revealed in the podcast. "We hired Christian Horner who was very young with no Formula 1 experiance. But the most important thing was signing Adrian Newey. He was the only one on the team with Championship winning experience. He bought the know-how and the demands needed to make Red Bull Racing a winning team," Marko said.

Marko proud of Verstappen and Vettel

Marko goes on to talk about the arrival of Verstappen and Vettel at Red Bull. "I am very proud that we signed Vettel and Verstappen. They both came out of the junior programme and became world champions. One of the quotes from Dietrich Mateschitz was: 'We don't buy stars, we make stars'," a proud Marko told us. "If you look at football teams or ice hockey teams, they have junior academies and building sportsmen and women," Marko added.

At Red Bull, Vettel managed to rack up 38 wins and four world championships. Verstappen has achieved 61 wins and three world titles with the Austrian racing team. Currently, the Dutchman tops the drivers' standings and is in the hunt for his fourth world title in a row.

This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton

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