Helmut Marko criticized Red Bull’s failure to inform Max Verstappen of Lando Norris’s penalty, suggesting it led to unnecessary on-track battles.
Helmut Marko acknowledges that Red Bull was not at its best operationally over the weekend in Austria. However, he believes the worst mistake was not informing Max Verstappen that he could let Lando Norris pass, as Norris was under investigation with an inevitable penalty for exceeding track limits.
“The victory was lost for several reasons,” explains the Austrian. “The fact that Verstappen’s second pit stop went badly, Norris slipped into the DRS window as a result, and also our assumption that hard tires would be the best choice in hot weather, which was not the case.”
“The temperatures were lower, which meant Norris had fresh tires in the last stint, and we had used ones, which was also a factor. But I would say both drivers drove unnecessarily too hard.”
“We may blame ourselves: we knew an investigation into track limits was underway. We knew Norris had crossed the lines too many times. We should have informed Max. I thought that action was completely unnecessary, and he could have simply finished behind him and won with Norris’s penalty.”
“But we didn’t know if he would be punished and how. In hindsight, we could have said: ‘OK, let him go.’ But let’s look on the bright side: we increased our lead in the championship, both in the constructors’ and drivers’ championships.”
Marko aligns with the Red Bull camp’s opinion and accuses Norris of going further than his rival: “I think what Max did was more within the limits than what Lando did. But it was unnecessarily aggressive from both drivers.”
“Their fight was a very nice battle at times until it somehow degenerated into a question of who was pushing who more, who was violating track limits more, instead of focusing on a fair play finish.”
Red Bull’s Key Error in Austrian GP. Red Bull’s Key Error in Austrian GP
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