Jaime Alguersuari has worked with "several psychologists" to help him to deal with the "trauma" he feels from his time as part of the Red Bull driver development programme.
The Spaniard made his Formula 1 debut with the sister Toro Rosso team, at the time becoming the sport's youngest ever racer. His career lasted for two-and-a-half years, during which time he started 46 Grands Prix before being cut loose along with Sebastien Buemi at the end of the 2011 campaign.
After a short stint in Formula E, Alguersuari gave up racing altogether and is now a music DJ, under the pseudonym 'Squire'. But in a new interview with Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, he revealed that he is still haunted by the intense training regime overseen by team adviser Dr Helmut Marko.
"I tell you something – when I sleep, I still have very strange dreams of that time," he said. "Especially about the impotence and the frustration of never making it, of seeing Mr Marko always angry, telling us off. As if we were children. This has created a trauma – and I am convinced that Buemi and many others are also going through it.
"I have not been able to erase this. I have done therapy, when I retired several psychologists helped me... now, even so, strange things come to my head. And sometimes wake up, like, crying, having dreamt of having done a great lap only to see the face of Mr Marko, angry."
Despite that worrying admission of how his life is still affected by his struggles in F1 more than a decade later, Alguersuari later went on to clarify his comments. In a social media post, the 32-year-old said he remains "deeply thankful" to Marko and to Red Bull for the chance he was given.
"I want to clarify something. HELMUT MARKO. I am deeply thankful to have met him when I was 15, Helmut was my teacher and someone who always asked me to deliver to push and boost myself forward and beyond. This is the Junior team system and it works," he wrote in a tweet.
"I have not enough words of gratitude to Red Bull and Helmut Marko because they have showed me a way of discipline, of dedication and hard f***ing work that is helping me out reach other goals in my life, in my music and I'm 100% sure I wouldn't be who I am today without being inside Red Bull.
"When competing at the highest level, whether it is F1, football, rugby or golf, in order to highlight it requires an extremely demanding mind to look for more performance. Even if you win Red Bull will keep demanding you higher and higher and higher."
