Richard Verschoor has become the latest casualty of the Red Bull Junior programme after revealing that Helmut Marko informed the young Dutchman he would not be retained into 2018 prior to the season-closing round of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
However it is not all bad news for the sixteen-year-old Dutchman, who has secured a second season in Eurocup, driving for Josef Kaufmann Racing, the team that took both Lando Norris and Sacha Fenestraz to the title in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Despite the loss of the backing from Red Bull, Verschoor feels he will not actually miss it, feeling it added unnecessary pressure onto him, and he will now move onto the next step of his career with it now in his own hands once more.
“I got the message from Red Bull before Barcelona when I called Helmut [Marko],” said Verschoor to Motorsport.com. “I wanted to know my status and if we would continue.
“If not, I could start putting together a different plan, and that’s what we started doing. Red Bull was great for the publicity and the financial part, but apart from that they mainly just added pressure.
“I don’t think I’ll really be missing their support. Now it’s time for the next step.”
Verschoor has also revealed that a lot of teams were interested in his services for 2018, but he ultimately was eager to join multiple-championship winning outfit Josef Kaufmann Racing.
“We were approached by almost every team, so we had quite a few options,” said Verschoor. “Kaufmann is the first team you look at, because they won a lot of championships.
“I was eager to join them. They have proven they can put together a good car and teach the drivers how to manage it.”
