Ex-F1 star points finger at Helmut Marko after latest Red Bull sacking

Helmut Marko has come under fire throughout the 2023 season, placing his future with Red Bull into question.

Former Caterham F1 driver Guido van der Garde has pointed the finger at Helmut Marko for the handling of Nyck de Vries’ career. The Dutchman was fired just ten races into his time with AlphaTauri following some brutal public criticism from the Red Bull advisor.

After a strong performance in 2022 at Monza as a stand-in for Williams in his Formula One debut, the 28-year-old impressed Marko enough to sign him to AlphaTauri before the 2023 season. Unfortunately, after a meaningless start to the season, De Vries only managed to finish ten races with the team.

Daniel Ricciardo returned to the Red Bull setup to challenge the underperforming Sergio Perez, and Marko took the decision to fire De Vries ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix due to the former Formula 2 and Formula E champion struggling against teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

Asked by RacingNews365 whether or not AlphaTauri were correct to replace him with Ricciardo, Van der Garde said: “Purely on paper, then you will say yes. But that is not entirely fair. After all, don’t forget that the AlphaTauri was completely jerky at the beginning of the season and Yuki Tsunoda couldn’t handle it either.

“Nyck was struggling and was under mega pressure after just a few races. We know how difficult it is when Helmut Marko yells every weekend that it has to be better, that it has to be faster, that you have to be ahead of Tsunoda because you are supposed to be the team leader. Then you snap at some point.

“Of course, it is not normal to think that when you are new to Formula One, you can attract such a team to you in one go. That takes six months to three-quarters of a year. But everyone thought after that one race in the Williams that he would show it, but it doesn’t work like that. It is therefore incredibly unfortunate that he was not given more time.”

After recovering from an injury sustained during free practice ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, Ricciardo found his groove and managed an impressive P7 finish in Mexico following a sensational qualifying display.

The six points achieved from that result, combined with the consistent showings from Tsunoda, helped AlphaTauri leapfrog Haas and Alfa Romeo to finish P8 in the Constructors’ Championship standings.

De Vries spent the remainder of the 2023 campaign on the sidelines, although he did secure a full-time return to racing for the upcoming season. The Dutchman will make his return to Formula E with Mahindra after spending three seasons with Mercedes between 2019 and 2021.