Marko: "The truth is: Lewis did not call in 2019"

9 September 2020 at 09:27

GPblog.com

Helmut Marko criticised Lewis Hamilton last week in Italy. The Mercedes driver is said to have called Red Bull Racing several times during the season last year to say they had to choose Alexander Albon at Pierre Gasly's expense. That doesn't seem to be quite right now, as Marko takes back his words in the run-up to the Grand Prix at Mugello.

"The truth is: Lewis did not call in 2019, but he approached our team boss Christian Horner in the plane and recommended to put Albon instead of Pierre Gasly in the car", Marko said in an interview with Sport1. The 77-year-old Austrian makes it clear that this happened before Red Bull actually decided to do a driver change during the summer holidays.

Marko does not understand Hamilton

Hamilton also stated a few weeks ago that Red Bull is missing a good second driver besides Max Verstappen. This meant that the six-time world champion competitor Albon lost quite a lot of potential. "We're not interested in that," Marko reacted firmly. "The one he wanted to get rid of last summer has now won the Italian Grand Prix with our Alpha Tauri team."

Red Bull's advisor doesn't really understand why Hamilton is interfering in the business of a rival race team. "I have no idea why Hamilton always feels compelled to interfere. But it doesn't matter to us what opinion people from outside have," concludes Marko.