Helmut Marko has revealed that Max Verstappen initially thought Red Bull’s interest in handing him a Formula One seat back in 2016 was ‘nonsense’. The Dutchman, who made his debut for the Austrian outfit at that year’s Spanish Grand Prix, recently became the first driver from the Netherlands to win the Drivers’ Championship title with a controversial victory in this year’s season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Verstappen reaped the rewards of a late safety car period following Nicholas Latifi’s crash which allowed him to close up to Lewis Hamilton at the front with only a few laps remaining.
He was directly behind the Brit when the green flags were waved to allow one final lap of racing after the five lapped cars between the two leaders were ordered to unlap themselves by race director Michael Masi.
The 24-year-old went on to overtake Hamilton before the chequered flag to write his name into the F1 history books in the most extraordinary circumstances.
Verstappen was highly emotional in the immediate aftermath of proceedings and even asked his race engineer via team radio if he could stay at Red Bull for at least another 10 to 15 years.
It seems as though he has come on leaps and bounds from his early days in F1, with Marko explaining that he initially dismissed the idea of joining the team back in 2016 as nothing but pure speculation.
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“Jos did realise something was going on and that Max might be driving for Red Bull, but Max thought it was sheer nonsense,” Marko told Motorsport.com.
“I called Jos [Verstappen, his father] early in the morning and told him we had to meet in Graz. During the lunch that followed, I could not get straight to the point.
“At the same time, there were all sorts of things going on in England in terms of contracts and preparations, so I had to talk around it a bit.
“It was only at the end of that lunch that I was able to get down to business, when Max was already wondering why he was there at all.
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“Anyway, before Max came to Graz he could have known what would happen, especially if he had listened to Jos.”
Verstappen ultimately accepted Red Bull’s offer for him to join them ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in 2016, just a year and a half after making his debut in F1 with their sister team, Toro Rosso.
In spite of the uncertainty involved with promoting a teenage driver, he went on to win the race with a sensational performance in the cockpit, becoming the youngest driver in the history of the sport to do so at the age of 18 years and 228 days.
“The whole Max Verstappen project has actually been a big risk,” added Marko.
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“But no, with Raymond Vermeulen [Verstappen’s co-manager] and Jos he had professional people behind him, of course.
“With that background and given his performance at Toro Rosso, it was quite logical to promote him.
“Apart from Sergio Perez this year, we have also consistently gone for drivers from our own training at Red Bull Racing.”
Verstappen will be hoping to mount a successful defence of his Drivers’ Championship title when the new F1 season gets underway, with the first race set to take place in Bahrain in March of next year.