Helmut Marko reminds Toto Wolff about the time he signed Esteban Ocon instead Max Verstappen says his talent wasn’t there “unrecognizable”.
Verstappen is currently a three-time Formula 1 world champion with 49 wins, 93 podiums and many records.
However, 10 years ago he was a karting star looking to take up single-seater racing and his year in European Formula 3 gave him a meteoric rise.
Red Bull signed him at the end of 2014 before moving him to Toro Rosso the following year.
Toto Wolff missed the opportunity to recruit Max Verstappen
For Wolff, it was a moment of regret when the Austrian revealed that he had the opportunity to recruit the Dutch player at Mercedes but passed it up.
“Do I regret missing out on Max? Sure. But that wasn’t an option at the time,” he told ESPN earlier this year.
“We had two drivers that I was extremely happy with, Nico and Lewis, and when Nico left [at the end of 2016], Valtteri [Bottas] was then an option and Max wasn’t even available. “
But according to Marko, Wolff “didn’t” recognize Verstappen’s talent and instead recruited Ocon into Mercedes’ junior program while also becoming the Frenchman’s manager.Speaking to OE24 about
Gerhard Berger’s recent U-turn on Verstappen, the former driver now ranks the 25-year-old with Ayrton Senna before adding that Verstappen “will go down as the best driver of all time “, Marko is happy that his compatriot has changed his tone.
“At first, he didn’t share my excitement about Max. When I first made this comparison [Verstappen resembles Senna], he said:
“It’s over now!”, he said.
And Berger wasn’t the only one to doubt Verstappen’s class, Marko added:
“Mr Wolff also said at the time that talent was unrecognizable and he signed for Ocon [Wolff returned became his manager].
Max Verstappen’s U-turn by Gerhard Berger
A year ago, with Verstappen on track to win his second consecutive world championship, Marko recalls the days when the driver’s career began on single seater when he compared himself to the late great Senna. .
However, he revealed, Berger was not impressed with his comments, so much so that he wrote to Marko to complain.
He told Sport1:
“He [Verstappen] has great control of the car – especially at the limits. That’s why I compare him to Ayrton Senna in his early years.
“I don’t necessarily make friends with that. My good friend Gerhard Berger wrote to me at the time that the comparison was far-fetched.”
However, this is an observation with which Berger now agrees.
“With Senna, it was all about the body, all about the intelligence of the race. I noticed that there is no position where he has a weakness. It’s the same with Max,” he told ServusTV.
He admits it’s something Marko noticed from the start when Verstappen was in Formula 3.
“He said about Max at the time:
he can do it – let’s just say it like OK!” he added.
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