Marko reflects on ex-Red Bull driver: 'Couldn't accept Verstappen was faster'

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has detailed how Pierre Gasly  “couldn't accept” that Max Verstappen was a faster driver than him at Red Bull.

Following his first full-time F1 season in 2018, Gasly was called up to Red Bull for the following campaign in place of Daniel Ricciardo.

However, he struggled to get up to speed at the Milton Keynes-based squad and was demoted back to the sister Toro Rosso team midway through the campaign in favour of Alex Albon.

Gasly has since rebuilt his F1 reputation and penned a multi-year extension at Alpine earlier this year after joining the French team in 2023.

Speaking to grandprix247.com, Marko looked back on Gasly's short-lived time with the team.

“When he was lapped in Budapest, he wanted a different suspension,” Marko said.

“He’s not an engineer. He was just running out of excuses and simply couldn’t accept that Max is just the faster guy.”

Verstappen's F1 debut

Verstappen has since gone on to win three world championships with Red Bull and is in prime position to take a fourth this year.

The Dutchman made his F1 debut in 2015 at just 17 years of age, but got his first weekend outing at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix during FP1.

“Then came the day when we put Max on a Friday drive at Suzuka, one of the fastest and most difficult circuits we have in the whole F1 calendar,” Marko said. 

“Some of our critics thought we were criminals. Max got in the car and went flat R130 at Suzuka, the flat-out one after only four laps or so. 

“He did a very competitive time and didn’t do anything wrong. And then from there on, the critics didn’t stop, but it was much less.”