Lewis Hamilton branded a hypocrite by Red Bull chief Marko over F1 row

F1: A lap of the British Grand Prix

Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has lashed out at Lewis Hamilton for suggesting they should be denied the chance to work on their 2024 car, suggesting the Mercedes star is a hypocrite and has a ‘short memory’. Hamilton is keen to see Red Bull’s dominance reined in by the FIA after watching the Silver Arrows and Ferrari struggle to get near Max Verstappen’s team, but Marko has reacted angrily to suggestions the rules should be changed to end their stronghold on F1.

Red Bull have won all nine races this season and are one victory away from breaking the record set by McLaren in the late 1980s of 11 consecutive race wins from one manufacturer. Heading into the British Grand Prix weekend, it looks as if the Austrian giant will be in a league of their own again.

And that has led figures such as Hamilton to call for changes, especially after Red Bull team principal Christian Horner indicated the team have already begun work on their 2024 car, such is their dominance over the rest of the field this year.

But Marko, 80, thinks Hamilton has forgotten the period where eight-time Constructors’ winners Mercedes enjoyed a similar run at the summit of the sport between 2013 and 2020 in making such demands.

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“He apparently has a bad memory. In the years that Mercedes was dominant, they also started the car for the next season much earlier than the other teams. In addition, they also had a superior power source, which delivered much more power than the rest,” Marko told Motorsport.com.

He added: “If you no longer have to put energy into this year’s car, then you will of course already focus on the next season. That’s just how it works in Formula 1.

“We now have a combination of a very good chassis, a good engine and a great driver. The team also makes almost no mistakes. We want to win as many races as possible, but first we have to secure both championships. That remains the most important thing.”

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Hamilton did refer to Mercedes’ own ability to work on their car when they were regularly winning races and gave a suggested date for F1’s lawmakers to ponder, as he pointed out the rules should apply for teams that are successful as much as those that aren’t.

“I think the FIA should probably put a time when everyone is allowed to start developing for the next year’s car,” he told reporters in Austria. “So August 1, that’s when everybody can start, so that no one can get an advantage from the next year. Because that sucks.

“Say for example you start the season and you know you have a bad car, you could just say actually ‘I’m not going to bother with developing this car, I’ll put all this money into next year’s car and have an advantage’.”

“Yeah, we never started as early as them,” Hamilton responded. “But it is, and that’s what I’m saying, it needs to change, because that’s why you have dominance for so long if they keep allowing it to happen.

“When Ferrari were ahead, that’s the same thing happened there, when Red Bull were ahead with Seb [Vettel] back in the day, they could start earlier and so they were always ahead.”

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