SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

Axed Red Bull star reveals Marko nightmares

A former Red Bull driver in Formula 1 says he still has nightmares about Dr Helmut Marko.

Jaime Alguersuari, Belgian GP 2009
© The Cahier Archive

A former Red Bull driver in Formula 1 says he still has nightmares about Dr Helmut Marko.

Jaime Alguersuari was left disillusioned with motor racing altogether after he was dumped by the energy drink company's F1 program.

The Spaniard, now 32, became a DJ after quitting motorsport at the age of 25.

"At Red Bull, you didn't live in peace even with great results," he told El Confidencial newspaper. "Your rivals congratulated more than the people on your own team.

"And we had that feeling from the age of 15. Nothing was ever enough. And if you look, it's Max Verstappen's pattern with his father. That is the Red Bull school."

Alguersuari said he was so upset with Red Bull's abandonment that he entered "a very complicated psychological and emotional moment".

"I still have very strange dreams from that time when I sleep. I see Mr Marko always angry, beating me up as if I am a child. It created a trauma.

"I have not been able to clean this up even with therapy and several psychologists. Sometimes I wake up crying - I've done a great lap and still see that Mr Marko is angry.

"I never saw him or spoke to him again. When I was a commentator with the BBC I greeted him in the paddock - nothing more than that."

(GMM)