Damon Hill shares what’s ‘positive’ about Helmut Marko’s harsh Red Bull driver comments

Follow us on Google Discover

Helmut Marko is known for being tough with drivers on the Red Bull Young Driver programme, with several talents passing through over the years.

The Austrian has been in the Formula 1 paddock since Red Bull joined the grid in 2005, having been tasked with overseeing their driver development programme.

This is one of the key pillars of Red Bull’s success story, having produced drivers such as Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen which earned them seven Drivers’ Championships and six Constructors’ titles.

Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz also represent this successful pedigree of talent, although not every driver has been a success story. Others such as Daniil Kvyat, Sebastian Buemi, and Pierre Gasly have all come through the Red Bull programme but had mixed careers in F1.

READ MORE: Who is Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko? Everything to know

Part of this is down to Marko’s ruthlessness, something that was on display recently when Red Bull decided to drop Daniel Ricciardo in favour of Liam Lawson for the final six races of the season.

Damon Hill believes this aspect of Marko is important when discussing him on the F1 Nation podcast, as it lets drivers know where they stand early on in their F1 careers.

Damon Hill explains why Helmut Marko’s harsh driver comments are ‘positive’

It’s no secret that F1 is a results-based business because points equal prize money at the end of the season for teams.

This is partially why Red Bull decided to replace Ricciardo with Lawson, knowing they had to defend their sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship from Haas.

Hill believes this enables drivers to know where they stand early on in their Red Bull careers, instead of it being too late to make changes.

“There’s something positive about that. There’s a lot of placating and giving people a soft landing sometimes from bad results. That’s not the real world. That’s not how life is. You have to be alerted,” said Hill.

“If you’re not on the right track, you have to be alerted to that. It’s much better if you get someone saying it early than saying much too late ‘You didn’t do well enough, and I’m sorry you’re out’ If you thought you were doing okay.”

Liam Lawson dealt with ‘cutthroat’ Helmut Marko calls

After Lawson joined the Red Bull Young Driver academy he explained how Marko would call him at 6am following any underwhelming race weekend, warning him that his future was at risk if there were no improvements.

The New Zealander said he ‘struggled’ to cope with the pressure at first, but was thankful for the ‘cutthroat’ management style because it meant he upped his game.

READ MORE: Who is Visa Cash App RB driver Liam Lawson? Everything you need to know

Karun Chandhok is worried that Lawson might be thrown into the deep end when he returns to RB to replace Ricciardo, especially since he will serve a 10-place grid penalty for an engine component change.

He’ll also just have one hour of practice owing to it being a Sprint weekend in Austin, before jumping straight into Sprint qualifying.