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Helmut Marko’s departure from Red Bull has raised a question over who the team will opt to replace him with, and Ralf Schumacher already has a name in mind for them.
Red Bull’s junior team had been spearheaded by Helmut Marko since before the Austrian drinks company had even broken ground on their F1 team.
Paired with team principal Christian Horner, Red Bull became a formidable force in F1 at the start of the 2010s. The team achieved great success under the leadership of Horner and the scouting eye of Marko.
However, relations unravelled between Horner and Marko in the years leading up to the former’s eventual sacking, and Red Bull’s on-track performances also suffered as a result.
The key to the Milton Keynes-based constructor’s success had been built around their ability to nurture talent from the single-seater ladder and turn them into highly successful drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
Now that Marko is gone, the team will need to rely on another figure within the Red Bull ranks to bolster their junior team roster, and Ralf Schumacher knows someone who will be a ‘good fit’ for them.
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Ralf Schumacher tells Red Bull that Franz Tost would be a ‘good fit’ to replace Helmut Marko
In a recent episode of the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, Schumacher was asked for possible candidates who could resume Marko’s role as the head of Red Bull’s driver development programme.
The former F1 driver identified Franz Tost, the ex-team principal of the Austrian constructor’s sister team, as his pick, saying, “Franz Tost would be a great person for this.
“He’s stayed young at heart, although I think he’ll be turning 70 soon, in January, if I’m not mistaken. But he would actually be a good fit, because he’s exactly the kind of carrot and stick that a young man needs from time to time.
“I mean that literally, really taking him by the hand and being there for him when he needs it, but also kicking him in the backside when he gets too lazy, because that’s just how it is, that’s what you need as a young man.”
There had also been some speculation that Sebastian Vettel could make a return to the F1 paddock in a full-time capacity in the position, something that has since been shot down by Marko himself.
Schumacher agrees with the Austrian’s verdict on the potential move, adding, “Then there was the rumour from a newspaper that Sebastian Vettel might be another one.
“But Dr Marko was also very sweet and made a good point. Sebastian Vettel doesn’t have much time between farming, painting trees and bees. And you just have to see that.
“I think what he’s doing is great, but I don’t think it fits in there anymore. Not in Formula 1.”
Who is former AlphaTauri and Toro Rosso team principal, Franz Tost?
Born in Austria in 1956, Tost began his career in motorsports as a driver in the Formula 3 and Formula Ford categories, and went on to win the 1983 Austrian Formula Ford championship.
However, after realising that he wasn’t quite cut out to compete at the top with the very best drivers in world motorsport, he sought a career in management instead.
After joining forces with Willi Weber, the former manager of Michael Schumacher, Tost was given the gig to run a Formula 3 team that housed a young Ralf Schumacher.
Following a stint with Williams between 2000 and 2005, Tost got his first taste of management in F1 when he was appointed as the team principal of Toro Rosso, the first iteration of Red Bull’s sister team in the sport.
He would keep his position at the team until the end of the 2023 season, cementing himself as one of the longest-serving team principals in the history of the sport.
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