Christian Horner wades into Red Bull row as Marko apologises for Perez comments

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has stated his stance on Helmut Marko’s recent comments towards Sergio Perez, suggesting that the Austrian has learned his lesson but that there will be no further punishment.

Marko, who acts as Red Bull’s chief advisor, landed himself in hot water when he told ServusTV: “The Italian GP was surely one of Checo Perez’s best weekends and we know about his problems in qualifying, which is where he has his doubts.

“Let’s remember that he 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.”

These comments prompted outrage from the wider F1 community, as well as Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who claimed that an apology was not sufficient and that Marko’s comments needed to be addressed with more severe punishment.

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Horner has addressed the situation, telling Sky Sports F1: “Those comments weren’t right. Helmut quickly recognised that and apologised for that both publicly and directly to Sergio. He spoke to Sergio directly about it.

“You are always learning in life even at 80 years of age. Inevitably lessons have been learned. Checo is a massively popular member and important member of our team. I pushed very hard to sign him for the 2021 season.

“We have a huge following around the world and we take that very seriously, very responsibly. The fan following that the team has, Checo has and F1 has, we are very conscious of it. This is his 250th race and we want to focus on that.

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“From Helmut’s perspective, he has apologised. He’s not an employee of Red Bull Racing, so in terms of why didn’t we put out a statement, he’s part of the Red Bull Group and the Group issued an apology through the Servus TV channel.”

The Red Bull boss was then asked about Hamilton’s comments, and whether any further punishment would be issued to Marko off the back of his reprehensible comments.

He responded: “Helmut is technically a consultant to the group so it’s not really a question for me to answer. We’ve obviously spoken about it, I know he regrets what he said, he’s apologised, and as I say, even at 80 years of age it’s still not too late to learn.”

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