F1 News: Helmut Marko Lays Blame On Red Bull After Max Verstappen Outburst

Saajan Jogia | Jul 22, 2024

Christian Horner and Helmut Marko / Red Bull Content Pool

Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko has apologized to Max Verstappen on behalf of the entire team for a "gross error" that caused the championship leader to finish the Hungarian Grand Prix in P5.

Toward the last leg of the race, Verstappen gave it his all from his P5 position to overtake Charles Leclerc's Ferrari SF24 before setting his sights on Lewis Hamilton in a bid to secure a podium finish. However, in his attempt to pass the Mercedes W15 at Turn 1, Verstappen locked up on the inside line, causing his rear left tire to make contact with Hamilton's front right.

The impact caused the RB20 to become airborne before going off track. Despite the mishap, Verstappen managed to finish as the fifth car across the line. The series of events and his unfamiliar position during the race fueled Verstappen's frustration, leading to intense radio exchanges with his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase (GP). Verstappen vented his grievances about the car and expressed his anger over the team’s strategy, which had caused him to drop down the order.

Verstappen's messages indicated that the team’s pit strategy had backfired, leading the three-time world champion to suggest that they had been 'undercut' by Mercedes and Ferrari during the second round of pit stops. He said on the radio:

“It’s quite impressive how we let ourselves get undercut and just completely f**ked my race."

Marko, who is known for his straightforward comments accepted that Verstappen's P5 finish was "entirely the fault of the team". Speaking to ORF, he said:

“It is clear that this is entirely the fault of the team.

“All simulations resulted in a different delta for overtaking manoeuvres. But we completely misjudged it and Mercedes took advantage of that.

“I haven’t met him [Verstappen] yet, but I will soon. We consciously accepted this [the team radio frustration] because we thought we would be faster on newer tyres later. If you know Verstappen, you know this is possible. But it is not necessary on board radio.

“That wasn’t the case and we couldn’t pass Hamilton. That’s our mistake and the position in which Max came back on track after the first pit stop was also our fault. We admit that we made a mistake. It was a gross error of judgement with regard to overtaking.”