George Russell and Oscar Piastri among the F1 talents missed out by Red Bull, states Helmut Marko 

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko spoke about how his team missed the opportunity to take George Russell and Oscar Piastri into their junior program.

Red Bull has been one of the leading teams when it comes to junior programs, with several F1 talents emerging like Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly. However, the Austrian-British team was unable to take all the budding F1 aspirants.

Speaking to GPBlog, Dr. Marko initially explained how it was easy for Red Bull to recruit younger drivers since they were one of the few teams that had a junior program. He said:

"In the beginning, it was easy because we had been the only ones. Now, nearly everybody has a junior or academy, or whatever it is called. And like, they are pulling away our employees from F1 with ridiculous money. It's bad for the talent. So it's more difficult, but we have a reputation. We brought many drivers to Formula 1."

Marko also mentioned George Russell and Oscar Piastri, who came to F1 through Mercedes and Alpine's junior programs, respectively. He stated that Red Bull Junior Academy simply cannot take every single driver as they need a certain type of personality that matches their brand. Marko added:

"Russell is an example. He's in Mercedes. He finds a good one. Piastri. We can't take everyone. That's also not our aim. You have to fit in terms of personality and character as well. They have to have their own language. And as I say, as long as they can use a fork and knife in a proper way, it's fine."

George Russell drove for Williams for quite some time before getting an opportunity to drive for Mercedes. On the other hand, Oscar Piastri came all the way to the top single-seater series with Alpine's junior program before jumping ship and entering F1 with McLaren.

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George Russell was surprised to see McLaren's sudden performance gains

George Russell expressed astonishment at McLaren's sudden resurgence to the top of the grid. Though he admits that a team of this caliber should be at the top of the table, he was surprised to see how much they have improved in just a couple of races.

After the British GP, ESPN quoted him as saying:

"I see no reason why they shouldn't be up there now. We've come from Red Bull Ring, which is a very different circuit to Silverstone. And they were a small step ahead of us on both occasions."

He added:

"So I don't know how they're found this much performance. It's been quite surprising. We don't tend to focus too much on our competitors. We just need to keep focusing on ourselves."

Though Mercedes threw everything at McLaren, the orange British team managed to stay ahead. Lando Norris finished second, ahead of Lewis Hamilton while Oscar Piastri managed to secure fourth place, ahead of George Russell.