Red Bull Boss Oozes Sarcasm in Brutal Jibe at Charles Leclerc Over “Unlucky” Max Verstappen Misfortunes

Helmut Marko has recently taken a dig at Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc after his crash in the Miami GP qualification. Connecting the incident to Max Verstappen’s luck, Marko rues over their decision to send the driver late.

As per Ferrari News on Twitter, Marko said that the Dutch pilot was extremely unlucky. The 25-year-old failed to complete his final qualifying run as the session prematurely ended after the Monegasque crashed.

🎙️| Helmut Marko:

“Max was extremely unlucky. If we had sent him out earlier, he would’ve certainly been on the first two rows.”

“Sarcastically speaking, we understood that we must not leave the pits behind Charles Leclerc.”

— Ferrari News 🐎 (@FanaticsFerrari) May 7, 2023

The 80-year-old went on to add that if the team would have sent him earlier, Verstappen, who starts Sunday’s race from P9 could have been in the top two rows.

The veteran Red Bull icon then brought out his dig at the Ferrari driver as he said, “Sarcastically speaking, we understood that we must not leave the pits behind Charles Leclerc.”

Leclerc disappointed with himself after the Miami crash

The Monegasque driver said he is “disappointed” in himself after crashing out at the same venue. The Ferrari driver lost control of his SF-23 and went off the road both in practice as well as in qualification.

Talking about it, the 25-year-old driver shared in a report published by The Race, “This is just not the level where I want to be.” The Ferrari driver also called the entire situation “unacceptable.”

Down but not out after that dramatic qualifying crash

Charles Leclerc starts Sunday’s race from P7 #MiamiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/nUtqqGmccu

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 7, 2023

Interestingly, Leclerc found the support of his boss Frederic Vasseur. At a time when the Ferrari star kind of let down the team, the French team principal stood by him to give him an important impetus ahead of the important race on Sunday.

Verstappen expects a tough race after P9

As the Dutchman is slated to start the race from P9, he expects the race to be tough, as per Junaid Samodien. Unless there’s a miracle, it’ll be hard for him to pick up a win, with his teammate Sergio Perez starting from pole.

Max Verstappen whose final out lap was jeopardized by Leclerc’s crash at Sector 1 on Saturday, faces an immense challenge to keep his championship lead from Perez.

Apart from Perez, the defending champion will have to clear the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, the Mercedes of George Russell, two Ferraris, and of course, a Haas and an Alpine. It’ll be interesting to see if the two-time world champion can pull up a podium at least.

About the author

Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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