Red Bull clarity given by ex-F1 driver as ‘people have wrong understanding’

Horner opens up on Red Bull's 'barren spell' amid Mercedes dominance

Helmut Marko’s Red Bull culture has been defended by Sebastian Buemi months after being dragged into an open feud by his former team-mate. Buemi claims other drivers have the “wrong understanding” of Red Bull as he backed the squad’s ruthless approach to dealing with up-and-coming drivers.

Buemi and team-mate Jaime Alguersuari were axed by Toro Rosso in 2011 with neither being promoted to the top Red Bull team. Daniel Ricciardo took his seat a year later and went on to become their next big star.

Last Autumn, Alguersuari claimed he was still traumatised from his time at Red Bull and even stressed Buemi was still affected by being dropped. But, speaking exclusively to Express Sport, Buemi said: “I think people sometimes have the wrong understanding of what it is.

“At the end of the day, it’s a business. At the end of the day, Red Bull is investing in young drivers to find the next superstar. If they come to the conclusion the guy is not good enough there is no reason he should keep the guy just for him to feel a bit better at night.

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“If he is not good enough he is not good enough. You don’t all have the career of [Sebastian] Vettel or Max [Verstappen] or Ricciardo. Sometimes it’s not straightforward. Maybe you can discuss a few examples.

“I would consider myself to be one of the borderline, to say yeah why didn’t you keep me, maybe it was not so clear. Some of the guys, they have an opportunity and they weren’t good enough they can already be happy with that. Otherwise, they would never have had it.

“That’s not the way it is. It’s performance, you need to deliver and that’s it at the end of the day, I never had a problem with that. I grew up having very limited resources with my parents in go kart and stuff like that so I always understood what was the point behind it.”

Pierre Gasly was given just half a season at Red Bull before being demoted back to the junior team. Meanwhile, Alex Albon was also axed after a little more than two seasons with the squad.

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Buemi has gone on to have a successful career in motorsport, winning the World Endurance Championship with four Le Mans wins to his name. He also clinched the Formula E title back in 2015-16 alongside his sportscar duties.

However, Last summer Alguersuari claimed Buemi was still being affected by losing his F1 drive. It was just one of the assertions made by the Spaniard in a heated attack on Red Bull a decade on from missing out on a prolonged stay in F1.

He commented: “Above all the helplessness and frustration of never meeting expectations, of seeing Mr. Marko always angry, telling me off. As if we were children. I see myself like that.

“This has created a trauma, and I’m convinced that Buemi, and many others, are going through it too. I have not been able to clean this, I have done therapies, and when I retired several psychologists helped me to deal with this to make a new life, but I wanted to deal with this to clean everything I had lived before.”

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