There are few people in the Formula 1 paddock known for being as harsh and ruthless as Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko.
The Austrian veteran is key to deciding who stays and who goes within the Red Bull and RB teams right now.
At the moment, Sergio Perez is trying to impress Helmut Marko to retain his seat, with Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda both fighting for contracts to stay on the grid in 2025.
He’s also keeping a very close eye on Carlos Sainz who will be a free agent at the end of the season and given he’s not rushing to sign a huge deal with Audi, it suggests he wants his Mexican rival’s place within the team.
Marko has been in F1 for a long time and has given his verdict on hundreds of drivers.
One of those is Bruno Senna, and speaking on the Beyond The Grid Podcast, he has shared that Marko never thought he would make it to Formula 1.
Helmut Marko told Bruno Senna he would never make it to Formula 1
Senna’s story isn’t unique to the Brazilian with one of the most famous names in motorsport history.
Daniil Kvyat has previously shared that Marko gave him one race to save his seat within the Red Bull set-up.
F2 drivers Enzo Fittipaldi and Zane Maloney were axed by Red Bull last year with Marko closely studying what happens in the series below Formula 1.
Maloney is currently leading the Formula 2 championship having signed up to Sauber’s academy, but it shows the levels you need to reach in order to stay in Marko’s good books.
Bruno Senna never received that level of support if Marko told him after one race during his junior career that he would never reach F1.
A few years later, the Brazilian was lining up on the grid against his four drivers but never had the easiest time in Formula 1 given the teams he was driving for.
Bruno Senna achieved his Formula 1 dream
Talking about his first encounter with Marko, Senna said: “Interestingly enough, I did a Macau race in Formula Renault in 2004 at the end of the year.
“Helmut Marko was there, I finished the race in 2, it was a completely crazy race, the guy didn’t do the chequered flag.
“Anyway, it was not one of my most competitive performances and I’d never been there and I didn’t like the car.
“It was the fourth race of my career and Helmut [Marko] came to me and said, ‘You will never be good enough for Formula 1’.
“That’s what he told me and Helmut was obviously the guy who was picking drivers for the Red Bull series.
“It was like, I’m going to prove him wrong, at the time I was completely motivated to do it and during that year when I raced for Christian’s [Horner] team in GP2, I won a race and I was leading the championship for a couple of races.
“He came to talk to me whenever I had a good time, but the car was not competitive so I couldn’t really fight for the championship in my first year in GP2, but things changed a little bit somehow then.”
Helmut Marko may have had the last laugh
Bruno Senna made his Formula 1 debut in 2010 thus proving Marko’s theory wrong, although he failed to score a point during that campaign.
He stepped in for Nick Heidfeld in 2011 at Lotus and won his first two points in the sport at the Italian Grand Prix that year before spending his final season in F1 with Williams.
Senna raced alongside Pastor Maldonado at Williams and incredibly the Venezuelan won the Spaniard Grand Prix that year.
It’s still the last time a Williams driver has stood on the top step of the podium and makes Senna’s total of 31 points look slightly underwhelming.
However, remove that freak result from Maldonado’s campaign and Senna would have easily outscored him.
Unfortunately, that was Senna’s final year in F1 while Maldonado continued for another three seasons.
Marko may feel he assessed Bruno Senna perfectly given he never even achieved a podium finish during his 46 races in F1.
However, he achieved an awful lot more than many drivers who have dedicated their lives to reaching the pinnacle of motorsport.
The post ‘He told me’: Helmut Marko once said to 46-race F1 driver that he would ‘never be good enough’ for Formula 1 appeared first on F1 Oversteer.