Helmut Marko has admitted he was wrong after comments he made on Hamilton’s ‘brake test’ claim in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko admits he was wrong after claiming that Max Verstappen had not braked excessively causing Lewis Hamilton to run into the back of the Dutchman’s car in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The clash which happened on lap 37 back straight between F1’s title rivals was a major talking point after the eventful race in Jeddah.
Ahead of the stewards’ decision to hand a 10-second penalty to Verstappen for “erratic” driving and causing the incident, a furious Marko claimed that Red Bull’s data would prove that Verstappen had not brake-tested his rival as Hamilton had alleged in the heat of the moment.
“Our engineers are preparing, we can prove Max was constant with his braking, he didn’t brake test like Hamilton said,” said the Austrian, according to Autosport.
“Then he crashed into our car,” Marko insisted. “He unfortunately put two cuts in the rear tyre, that was so severe that we couldn’t attack anymore. We had to take speed out.”
However Marko has come to apologise for the comments he made claiming the information given by the engineers was wrong.
“At the time of the television interview, I passed on exactly the information that I had previously received from the engineers. They obviously weren’t right, so I’m sorry,” Marko now tells F1insider.
“Hopefully the sad chapter of Saudi Arabia has now closed,” he adds. “In any case, we’re just looking ahead. We want to win in Abu Dhabi and so win the title.
“We will do everything for this, but we will not take any unfair actions. In Saudi Arabia we already had the pace to keep up with Hamilton. The route in Abu Dhabi should be more accommodating to us.”
