Max Verstappen said he would welcome fellow four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel back to Red Bull after the German spoke of possibly succeeding consultant Helmut Marko at the team.

Austrian Marko, 82, is a former racer who was blinded in one eye after a stone pierced his visor during the 1972 French Grand Prix in Clermont-Ferrand, has a contract until the end of next year.

Vettel, 37, won consecutive titles with Red Bull from 2010-13 and retired in 2022 after stints at Ferrari and Aston Martin.

“It’s more than normal that someone that has achieved so much with Red Bull, has been brought up by Red Bull [should return],” Verstappen told reporters at the Austrian Grand Prix on Thursday when asked for his thoughts.

“In a sense there’s always a spot available, right?

“I think also Seb always kept a really good relationship with Helmut anyway, even when he left. I didn’t know that of course they were talking but I’m sure that there’s always a space for Seb in any kind of form.”

Marko was a close confidant of the team’s late Austrian owner Dietrich Mateschitz, serving as his trusted representative in the paddock as well as also taking charge of the young driver programme.

During Vettel’s era the outspoken advisor was part of a leading trio with principal Christian Horner and technical ace Adrian Newey, who is now at Aston Martin.

“We’re in contact about this, though maybe not so intensively or in-depth yet, but it’s possible,” Vettel told Austria’s ORF television recently.

“He’s already said a few times that he’d stop, but he’s still here, and I wish him all the best so that he stays around for a very long time.”

Marko told Austria’s Kleine Zeitung on Wednesday that Vettel was following everything very closely.

“The question of succession is also one of the issues,” he said.