Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has revealed that Christian Horner was “not a fan” of Nyck de Vries being signed for AlphaTauri last year.
De Vries was snapped up by Marko to replace the outgoing Pierre Gasly after an impressive deputy performance for Williams at last year’s Italian Grand Prix.
However, the Dutchman has struggled hugely in his full rookie campaign and is still waiting to bag his first point of the year.
When asked on the Inside Line F1 podcast whether he and Red Bull team boss Horner had ever disagreed on driver signings, Marko said: “Not often, but sometimes we do. The last one… I would say de Vries.
“Basically it’s AlphaTauri, but we’re a big family and we get opinions. He [Horner] was not a fan of de Vries.”
Despite AlphaTauri struggling towards the backend of the field this season, de Vries has been regularly outperformed by younger team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
Aside from his failure to score thus far, de Vries has also been criticised for getting involved in numerous incidents, prompting Marko to declare after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix he was on a “yellow card”.
Although the Austrian stated he was more impressed with de Vries’ recent showings, he’s now suggested that Horner’s opposition to the move is being proven right.
“I would say at the moment it looks like he’s [Horner] right,” Marko conceded.
Mick Schumacher’s name has been in the headlines recently after Marko claimed that Mercedes chief Toto Wolff tried to set up a meeting regarding the German potentially resurrecting his F1 career at AlphaTauri.
The son of seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher is currently fulfilling a reserve driver role at Mercedes after losing his Haas drive at the end of last year.
Although Wolff downplayed the comments, Marko has confirmed that AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost was lobbying for the Faenza side to field Schumacher in 2023.
“[It was] Franz Tost who wanted Mick Schumacher, but Mick was with Ferrari Academy for his whole career,” he explained.
Discounting his previous ties to Ferrari, Marko adds that the acquisition of de Vries, formerly a champion in the all-electric Formula E series, aligned more with AlphaTauri’s purpose as a team.
“Basically, AlphaTauri is a junior team,” he underlined. “De Vries is different to Schumacher in that he had just one race, very successful in Monza, so he could fit into our philosophy.”
If de Vries fails to improve his form sufficiently enough to retain his seat for next year, Marko has already proposed that Red Bull junior drivers Iyumu Awasa and Liam Lawson would be the prime contenders to replace the 28-year-old.
However, it was disclosed this week that Daniel Ricciardo is a credible option for an AlphaTauri seat in 2024 and the Australian will be assessed in the Red Bull RB19 at an upcoming Pirelli test at Silverstone.
Ricciardo recently professed in an interview that driving for Red Bull again would provide the “fairytale” ending to his F1 career.
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