Ex-Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher believes Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has a “problem” with his family’s name, with the German having accused Marko of blocking a move to AlphaTauri for Mick Schumacher due to “personal reasons”.
The Mercedes reserve driver was a reported contender for Pierre Gasly’s vacant AlphaTauri seat for 2023, only for the Faenza-based team to sign Nyck de Vries.
Staggeringly, it’s been revealed by Ralf that team principal Franz Tost didn’t want to sign the Dutchman, with Marko having ultimately chosen De Vries for the sister team.
“Franz Tost, as the team manager and team principal, initially wanted a different driver because he knows that it takes two to three years [to get new drivers up to speed],” Schumacher told Formel1.de.
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“The driver available on the market was Mick. Mick would have made sense as well. But then Dr. Helmut Marko came along and, for personal reasons or whatever it may be, didn’t want that and chose Nyck de Vries, instead.”
The brother of Michael Schumacher seemingly believes that his nephew will never be able to move to AlphaTauri whilst Marko is still heavily involved with the team, despite him personally getting on well with the 80-year-old.
“It seems that Helmut Marko has a problem with the Schumacher name,” the ex-F1 driver said.
“Even though I have a good exchange with him personally, it seems he has some problem with Mick because otherwise, it’s not understandable to me why it didn’t work out from the beginning.”
It’s not just down to Mick’s driving ability why his uncle believes he should’ve gotten Gasly’s seat, with the former driver believing having a German driver would’ve done wonders for Red Bull as a company.
Ralf added that Red Bull don’t have the “strongest market in Germany”, something he believes they could’ve fixed by signing Mick.
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“We shouldn’t forget that Red Bull doesn’t necessarily have the strongest market in Germany,” he stated.
“I believe that if the Red Bull group kept Schumacher in Formula One, it would have received a lot of positive feedback.
“I’m quite surprised that the new management hasn’t paid much attention to it because, ultimately, it’s not Dr. Marko’s decision, but the management is the one paying for it.”