Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz had ‘toxic’ relationship at Toro Rosso, Red Bull chief reveals

Verstappen and Sainz were teammates in 2015 at Toro Rosso and Helmut Marko reveals the atmosphere was ‘quite toxic’

(Getty Images)

Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz had a “toxic” relationship when the pair were teammates at Toro Rosso, says Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko.

Verstappen and Sainz, now battling for race wins at Red Bull and Ferrari respectively, started their F1 journey together at Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso in 2015.

Verstappen, who was 17 when he made his debut, out-scored his Spanish teammate by 49 points to 18 in their first season, before the Dutchman joined Red Bull in the early stages of the 2016 season, swapping places with Daniil Kvyat.

Sainz, meanwhile, stayed at Toro Rosso until the end of the the 2017 season when he joined Renault and has since moved to McLaren and is now at Ferrari. But Marko, in an interview in The Red Bulletin, spoke about the sympathy he had for the Spanish driver having Verstappen as his teammate in his debut season in Formula 1.

“It was his (Sainz’s) bad luck to get Max as a teammate,” Marko said.

“The atmosphere between the two at Toro Rosso was quite toxic. In the set-up we had at the time, I couldn’t see a way of keeping him with us and so he moved to Renault, McLaren and then on to Ferrari.”

“For a long time he [Sainz] lived in the shadow of his father [Carlos Sainz Snr], the two-time world rally champion. He was unfairly saddled with the image of being the spoiled son of a racing driver whereas, on the contrary, Carlos had to fight consistently to get ahead.”

Helmut Marko (centre) spoke about the sympathy he had for Sainz having Verstappen as his team-mate in his debut season in Formula 1 (Getty Images)

When Verstappen was promoted to Red Bull at 18 years of age, there was shock across the paddock with some feeling Sainz had been overlooked - but Marko says their decision was justified as Verstappen was the “quicker driver” and won his first race at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.

“There was an outcry because some felt Carlos had been overlooked,” Marko added.

“His development was also very good and the difference between the two was often very minimal, but despite having less experience Max was the faster driver, hence our decision to move him to Red Bull Racing.”