Does Marko regret letting go of Sainz? “Verstappen justified that decision”

Like Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz started his Formula 1 career in 2015 with Toro Rosso, the team we now know as AlphaTauri. More than six years later, Verstappen is still on the Red Bull payroll, while Carlos Sainz spread his wings and ended up at Ferrari via Renault and McLaren. There he does the stoneware, which the German Formula 1 to ask if Helmut Marko regrets letting Sainz go.

He points to Max Verstappen to indicate that it is actually not that bad: “At that time (2015, early 2016, ed.) we were very strong, but in Max we saw the strongest driver. That is why the choice fell on Verstappen and I at the time. I think the results that Verstappen subsequently showed more than justify that decision.”

Asked whether he would like to have Sainz (back) in his team today, he more or less indicates that the roads are definitely parted, not least because Sainz himself once decided, because Red Bull was always charmed of the Spaniard.

“We didn’t send Sainz away and it’s not for nothing that we were once very early to sign him. Verstappen and Sainz were very evenly matched, but we didn’t have the opportunity to offer him more (than a spot at Toro Rosso, ed. He was not convinced of the future prospects at Toro Rosso. He felt he was not moving forward and he did not want to wait any longer. We first loaned him and then we canceled the contract completely, because we did not want his future in the stand away.”

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