Marko criticises Verstappen: "He should leave the strategy to us."
Unlike Christian Horner, Helmut Marko has been a little stricter for Max Verstappen after his angry reports about the onboard radio during the Spanish Grand Prix. The 77-year old Austrian is of the opinion that Verstappen shouldn't concern himself with strategy when he is fighting for victory or a podium place.
"That's just the temperament that sometimes gets away with Max. It's just stupid when it's all on air," says Marko in conversation with the German branch of Sky. The Red Bull Racing advisor then goes on to say that he doesn't always find it very pleasant that everyone can listen in on what Verstappen discusses with the team.
The fact that the 22-year-old Dutchman fiercely opposed head engineer Gianpiero Lambiase cannot be approved by Marko. "He has to leave the strategy to us. We took a closer look at how far down the tyre has gone. We knew that it was at its limit at times." According to the man from Graz the remarks of Verstappen had no added value.
Marko sees Red Bull achieve maximum result
The fact that Verstappen managed to split the Mercedessen on the circuit of Barcelona is worth a compliment for the Limburg rider. "It was important for us to keep Bottas behind us. And we succeeded in doing so," says Marko. That was 'the maximum' from Red Bull's point of view. "Splitting the two Mercedes is already a success for us."
The contrast between Marko's comments and Wolf's is telling. Wolf welcomed Hamilton's choice to put on mediums instead of softs, and it was clearly the right call. Bottas however, got it wrong and lost his chance to pressure for a second, but the teams allows for such choices. Likewise, you would think Marko would welcome a similar sense of conviction (and maturity) from Verstappen in similar situations - there is nothing wrong with that!
I'm not a max or Marko fan but Marko should keep his nose out of such affairs that shouldn't concern him, he is charge of the young driver program and nothing more, max has established himself as an F1 driver now, he should no longer fall under Marko and the young driver program, Marko has done his job nurturing max through the junior formulas, Christian is now his boss not marko
You have it exactly right, take care of your own job, Marko, Max is in the car, he knows a lot more about it than him, or anyone else, the data only hoes so far, the driver feels the car and knows what it can or not do. Be more like Mercedes and listen to the driver, your an idiot Marko.
Verstappen is the only F1 driver with a meaningful number of fans. His driving and his crew stand above those of other competitors. Marko has patently failed to give him a teammate who can influence Mercedes-Benz' strategy options. Criticizing Max for pointing out some opportunities not to do something stupid is absurd. Marko needs to be sent packing with Albon.
The excellent strategy and tactics of RedBull has one name: Max Verstappen. (just watching at Verstappen mates results, everyone can see how this team strategies are working)
Marko criticises Verstappen: "He should leave the strategy to us." They wanted him to go for the one stopper, but they gave him a car built for a two stopper
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