Dr Helmut Marko has ruled out offering impressive rookie Oliver Bearman a seat at Red Bull’s junior Formula 1 team RB.
Bearman impressed at the wheel of the ill Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari in Saudi Arabia recently, prompting Marko - the 80-year-old top F1 consultant at Red Bull - to urge Ferrari to promote him to a full-time spot on the grid.
"If I were Fred Vasseur, I would immediately find Bearman a cockpit in another team - I don’t know, at Haas for example," Marko told Speed Week.
When asked by Osterreich newspaper to expand on his comments, the Austrian answered: "They bought (Lewis) Hamilton at great expense and signed (Charles) Leclerc to a long-term contract.
"I’d put the boy in a smaller team like Haas next year," he repeated. "A year of learning never hurt anyone and will also take the pressure off him."
That year of learning, however, won’t be at the wheel of a junior Red Bull.
"We actually had an informative conversation with him," Marko reveals, "but he was already in the Ferrari academy.
"It is inconceivable that we would train him up for Ferrari."