Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez were the immediate front-runners.<\/p>\n
Red Bull favouring one of two proven midfield veterans made sense, given the success Mercedes were having at the time with Lewis Hamilton<\/a> and Valtteri Bottas<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n At one time, Hulkenberg was favourite to take the seat alongside Verstappen for 2021.<\/p>\n The German wasn\u2019t on the grid in 2020 after losing his drive to Esteban Ocon <\/a>at Renault.<\/p>\n However, he starred for Racing Point in his stand-in appearances.<\/p>\n Perez\u2019s late-season charge turned the tide in his favour, winning for the first time at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.<\/p>\n It meant Hulkenberg missed out on a top drive again in F1, ultimately making his return with Haas in 2023.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Recalling the decision between Hulkenberg and Perez, Marko explained to F1-Insider: \u201cAt that time he [Hulkenberg] was, I think, a co-commentator at Servus TV, so there was already a relationship there, and there were the beginnings of talks, but then Perez won that race in Bahrain, I think, and because of that everything turned in Perez\u2019s direction,\u201d Marko told\u00a0F1-Insider.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it would have been a really nice time, because the two get along very well, and yes, Hulkenberg is a safe bank for points, and in our car it would also have been top positions.\u201d<\/p>\n Marko has no regrets<\/p>\n Marko has been head of the Red Bull junior programme since its inception.<\/p>\n Under his leadership, Marko has seen Max Verstappen <\/a>and Sebastian Vettel <\/a>become world champions with the team.<\/p>\n Helmut Marko, Red Bull<\/p>\n \u00a9\u00a0XPB Images<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz have won races in F1, while the likes of Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly have flourished.<\/p>\n \u201cActually, I stand by the decisions, and one has to bear in mind that over 95% of the drivers who did not remain in our cadre then go on to race in Formula E, race in WEC, race in DTM or elsewhere,\u201d Marko explained.<\/p>\n \u201cThey earn good money – far more than they probably could in a civilian profession – and then they do what they love, namely compete in motorsport. And that was mainly made possible through our involvement.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd Formula 1 is the pinnacle, and it requires not only talent but also special characteristics and a certain strength, both mentally and in overall constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nico Hulkenberg was close to becoming Max Verstappen\u2019s Red Bull teammate in 2021, Helmut Marko has revealed. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,1073,12646,749,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-357035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-max-verstappen","12":"tag-nico-hulkenberg","13":"tag-red-bull-racing","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115055961412671583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Helmut](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/xpb_1346952_hires.jpg\")
<\/p>\n