Marko’s ‘hindsight’ admission over rejected Red Bull option

Choosing Sergio Perez over Nico Hulkenberg for F1 2021, Helmut Marko admits in “hindsight you’re always smarter” as the German has improved with age.

Red Bull’s second race seat has been an issue since 2019, when Red Bull replaced the Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo with Pierre Gasly and then Alex Albon.

Helmut Marko: “In hindsight, you’re always smarter.”

With both drivers, still early in their careers, floundering under the pressure that comes with being Max Verstappen’s team-mate, Red Bull looked outside of its own stable for a 2021 driver.

Perez and Hulkenberg were the two contenders.

The Red Bull bosses opted for Perez when his maiden victory at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix swung the odds in his favour.

“He [Hulkenberg] was in discussions,” Marko told Sky Deutschland earlier this year. “Then Perez won the race in Bahrain, which was just in the decision-making phase and then tipped the scales.”

Perez had four years with Red Bull and won five Grands Prix before a troubled F1 2024 campaign resulted in the team cancelling his contract despite renewing it only seven months before.

F1 2025: The season’s winners and losers

? The results of the F1 2025 championship

? The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

As for Hulkenberg, the German spent three years as a super sub for the Aston Martin team before returning to the grid with Haas where he picked up the tag ‘Mr. Saturday’ for his incredible qualifying performances. This year, he claimed his long-awaited first podium with third at the British Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Marko accepts that perhaps Red Bull didn’t make the right call.

“That was before we took Checo Perez,” Marko told OE24: “In hindsight, you’re always smarter.

“Checo won then, Hulkenberg threw races away at the time.

“Now he’s better. The older he gets, the fewer mistakes he makes.

“That’s why he has a good contract with Audi.”

Hulkenberg joined Sauber at the beginning of this season in a multi-year deal that will see him spearhead the team’s challenge when Sauber is rebranded Audi in F1 2026.

While Marko concedes Red Bull may have erred in not signing Hulkenberg for 2021, Ralf Schumacher insists the team missed the opportunity to put the perfect driver alongside Verstappen.

“The mistake from the start was not putting Nico Hulkenberg in the car,” Schumacher told Sky Deutschland

“That was Christian Horner’s decision. That’s what I heard. But they needed a clear, experienced number two alongside Max Verstappen. And I think that would have worked well.”

Hulkenberg is ninth place in the Drivers’ Championship, the 15 points from his Silverstone podium raising his tally to 37. That’s the bulk of Haas’ points, with the American outfit on 41 as it sits sixth on the Constructors’ log.

Verstappen too has the bulk of his team’s points, having scored 165 of Red Bull’s 172.

Read next: ‘Two out of three’ for Horner and Ferrari after Red Bull axing?