Helmut Marko reveals Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz had an ‘extremely toxic’ relationship during their time at Toro Rosso
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Max and Carlos
Helmut Marko the Red Bull team adviser has recently talked about the 2015 pairing of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz when they were together at the Toro Rosso team.
The duo was together for a total of 23 Formula One Grand Prix and Marko believes that the two combustible elements made the atmosphere extremely toxic during their time together at Red Bull’s sister team.
Helmut Marko has been in charge of hiring and firing people at Red Bull and Toro Rosso(AlphaTauri) for years and in 2015 it was his decision to gamble on the young shoulders of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen.
Max was only 17 years old when he got his first taste of a Formula One car whereas Carlos Sainz was 20. Helmut believes that their partnership got off to a bad start.
Helmut while talking about that time said, “It was his [Sainz’s] bad luck to get Max as a team-mate.”
“The atmosphere between the two at Toro Rosso was quite toxic.”
“In the set-up, we had at the time, I couldn’t see a way of keeping him with us and so he moved to Renault, McLaren and then on to Ferrari.”
Carlos Sainz made his own path in Formula One
Max Verstappen was promoted to the Red Bull senior team in the year 2016 to replace out-of-form Daniil kvyat whereas Carlos Sainz had no other team to move on to for different reasons.
As Helmet stressed, it was difficult for them to keep the Spaniard in their setup, so Sainz had to carve his own path in the sport. The 27-year-old moved on from Toro Rosso to Renault during the end of 2017 and from there to McLaren and now is doing his trade for a top team like the Ferrari Formula One team.
Marko who has been associated with the sport for a decent number of years feels that Carlos struggled in his rookie season in the sport because of the added pressure of living up to the expectations of his father who was a prolific rally car driver.
While stressing about Sainz’s time at Toro Rosso, Marko said, “For a long time, he lived in the shadow of his father, the two-time world rally champion.”
“He was unfairly saddled with the image of being the spoiled son of a racing driver whereas, on the contrary, Carlos had to fight consistently to get ahead.“
That tumultuous time is now behind the Spaniard as currently, he is doing well for the Ferrari F1 team and was also able to win the first Grand Prix of his F1 career at Silverstone.
Carlos Sainz’s star is on the rise and things can’t get more exciting given the fact his former teammate Max Verstappen is also at the front end of the Formula One grid.
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