Marko: Horner opposed replacing Kvyat with Max.

      Last week marked the 10th anniversary of Max Verstappen's first victory in Formula 1 in his very first race with Red Bull Racing. Reflecting on those events, former Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko recounted that team principal Christian Horner was against replacing Daniil Kvyat with Max Verstappen during the season.

      Helmut Marko: "I remember Carlos Sainz, Max's teammate at the time, was very upset that we chose not to go with him. Team principal Christian Horner disagreed with putting Max in our car after four races in 2016. He was fundamentally against changing drivers. Like many competitors and critics, he said that Max was still too young and that it was a dangerous transition.

      But in the previous race in Sochi, Kvyat was involved in collisions twice. A year earlier, he had shown good results and was sometimes even faster than Daniel Ricciardo, especially in the rain. But in 2016, he was no longer the same driver and complained about the brakes from day one of testing. It was clear to me that something needed to be done.

      Jos Verstappen suspected that some events might unfold. He called me and asked, "Should we come to Graz?" I deliberately didn't tell him what it was about, but the next day we met in Austria. We both understood that we would face criticism, but fortunately, Jos and I were used to attacks against us.

      The race in Barcelona was incredible. The Mercedes drivers collided with each other, but right after that, Max showcased all his class. He was faster than his teammate Ricciardo, and in the final laps, he held off Kimi Räikkönen's attacks.

      On the straights, Kimi was faster, but he couldn't overtake Max because Max drove maturely and wisely. Even Jos and Max's manager Raymond Vermeulen couldn't believe what was happening.

      For me and Dietrich Mateschitz, that result was a huge relief. People thought we had gone mad, but we silenced all the critics."