Marko ramps up pressure on de Vries amid revelation Horner was ‘not a fan’

Following his outstanding points-scoring F1 debut in a one-off cameo for Williams at last year’s Italian Grand Prix, de Vries was brought in to replace the Alpine-bound Pierre Gasly at Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri. 

But following a difficult start to life at AlphaTauri, de Vries' future has already been called into question amid growing speculation that Daniel Ricciardo could be in the frame to replace him next season, if not sooner. 

Marko has now admitted that he and Horner initially disagreed about hiring de Vries, with the Red Bull team principal “not so big a fan” of the Dutchman. 

When asked if disagreements over driver appointments occur regularly at Red Bull, Marko told the Inside Line F1 podcast: "Not often, but sometimes we do. 

“The last one... I would say de Vries. And at the moment it looks like he [Horner] is right."

Marko added: "It's AlphaTauri [not Red Bull], but we're a big family and we get opinions. He was not so big a fan of De Vries.”

Marko also confirmed that AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost wanted Mick Schumacher to replace Gasly.

"[It was] Franz Tost who wanted Mick Schumacher, but Mick was with Ferrari Academy for his whole career,” he explained. 

"Basically, AlphaTauri is a junior team. De Vries is different to Schumacher in that he had just one race, very successful in Monza, so he could fit into our philosophy."