Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons after he made some shocking remarks about Sergio Perez. The Austrian not only slammed the Mexican for his poor driving but also launched a jibe at him, revolving around the fact that he is “South American”. The 80-year-old’s remarks became such an issue that Red Bull team principal Christian Horner also had to give his take on the situation. With Marko receiving immense criticism for his comments, Red Bull sim racer Rudy van Buren has given his take on the situation while appearing on the In de Slipstream program.
Marko came under immense fire recently after he recently told Sport & Talk of Servus TV in a recent interview, “Let’s remember that he (Perez) is South American, and so his head is not as focused as Max Verstappen or as Sebastian Vettel was, but racing is his forte and he had a very good race (at Monza)“.
Rudy van Buren defends Helmut Marko amid massive criticism
Kees van de Grint began by explaining on the In de Slipstream program how Helmut Marko made a “stupid” comment. Van de Grint then named the likes of Ayrton Senna and Emerson Fittipaldi to explain why the Austrian‘s remarks were baseless as both these South American drivers were extremely quick during both qualifying and the race.
Rudy van Buren then gave his take on the situation by adding (as quoted by f1maximaal.nl), “Nowadays, you can’t say anything anymore. That is also a problem of the present time. Is the comment wrong? That is not the discussion, but if he has officially apologized to Pérez’s face and Pérez says that’s fine, then that’s the end of the matter, and we move on. Then it just has to stop“.
Max Verstappen also seems to agree with van Buren as he made similar remarks when asked about the same. The Dutchman believes that while he is not the best individual to speak about this matter, he does believe that people need to move on.
Verstappen believes Marko has understood his mistake
While recently speaking to Sky F1 in an interview (as quoted by planetf1.com), Max Verstappen began by stating that he does not believe that he is the right individual to educate Helmut Marko. However, he did add that if the Austrian has accepted his mistake and apologized for the incident, then people must move on.
On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton explained why a simple apology is not enough for such a grave issue. The Briton stated (as quoted by planetf1.com) that Marko’s remarks were “totally unacceptable” and that action must be taken against such individuals. Hamilton then ended his remarks by stating that Marko’s remarks did not surprise him.
