In a column on Speedweek, Dr. Helmut Marko has once again called out “English media,” calling into question their driver ratings and their relevance to the quality of the championship.
At beginning of the season, Max Verstappen looked set to once again pilot his Red Bull Racing machine to a dominant championship. But in Miami, Lando Norris emerged as a challenger courtesy of an upgrade package introduced by McLaren.
After two years of Verstappen dominance, many fans and pundits were intrigued by the possibility of a championship that could go down to the wire — but as the season progressed further, Norris failed to mount a strong enough challenge against his rival. Verstappen therefore wrapped up the championship with two races to go.
The enthusiastic support of Norris from British media outlets rankled Verstappen, who alleged that there was bias against him for having the “wrong passport.”
Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko has weighed in on that topic once more in his final Speedweek column of the year — and where he broke down the title fight.
“Max has matured further this year,” Marko writes in Speedweek, translated from German.
“He was the best mentally, as a driver and in one-on-one combat, and he has learned to only achieve what is necessary.
“If anyone had said at the beginning of the year that he would wave Lewis Hamilton and the two Ferraris past because he was thinking about the world championship, that would have been declared nonsense. But he did it because he knows what he has to concentrate on.”
Marko praised Verstappen’s driver-centric dominance at the wet weather Brazilian Grand Prix — a race that Marko hailed as “the World Cup” due to “the pressure on his shoulders.”
“He had already put in a really good performance in 2016 in Interlagos under similar conditions,” the advisor reflected, “but he made a few mistakes back then.
“This time he made no mistakes, and that shows how strong his nerves are.
“The 17 fastest laps he completed at the end of the race were a psychological humiliation for the competition; he outclassed everyone and proved once again why he is one of the best in the sport.
“That is our top priority, and his top priority. We are not concerned with the journalists’ ratings or any degree of popularity.”
Rather, Marko and Verstappen are totally focused on scoring points for the World Championship — and no other driver could outshine the Dutch champion in that regard this year.
The reason Marko mentions all this is because he says it’s “true that there is not necessarily an objective balance in the English media.”
That could stem from the novelty of a new challenger.
“But I think that the phenomenon that always plays a role is that the person who comes on the scene as a new, potential star or hunter enjoys more sympathy than the established champion,” Marko explained.
“But Max doesn’t care, he always says what he thinks and shows his emotions, and I think that’s right.”
