Tuesday, December 14, 2021
“Enormous damage to image”
Red Bull advisor mocks Mercedes
On the track, the Formula 1 season ended at the weekend, and there may be an extension at the green table. Until the decision is made, messages will be exchanged between the teams. They have it all.
The Formula 1 season has actually been over since Sunday, but the world championship is still not finally decided 48 hours after the checkered flag of the last Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi: In a dramatic final, Max Verstappen was able to take the world title in the last few meters drive, largely supported by a controversial decision by the race management. The Red Bull driver seized the chance that a crash from Williams driver Nicholas Latifi gave him and passed Lewis Hamilton. His racing team, Mercedes, protested unsuccessfully that evening and reserves the right to appeal against the FIA’s decision. And that in turn is cause for pithy words for the world champion’s camp.
“With our understanding of sport, we would never ever do that,” said Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko in an interview with RTL / ntv. “I am amazed that it is even taking on such proportions. I believe that this is an enormous damage to the image of Mercedes,” emphasized the Austrian. You yourself take “the best engineers, Mercedes the best lawyers,” sneered Marko. The background: Mercedes had an “outrageous lawyer” with them in Abu Dhabi. Marko’s conclusion: “Should the result not be satisfactory from a sporting point of view”, Mercedes had the plan beforehand – so the assumption – that they wanted to “bring about a change” in another way.
The decision as to whether Mercedes will now challenge the result of the hearing after the race is apparently left to rest: “We are celebrating, we feel, should the result be changed, which we do not assume at all, as moral winners.” You yourself have “suffered seven years of defeat and have done it with decency”.
“That was very nice”
The deadline for the objection ends on Thursday. If it passes, the result of the last World Championship race and thus the most exciting title decision of the past few years will be final and Max Verstappen will be world champion. It is not yet clear whether Mercedes will decide in favor of the appeal after the rejected protests, but from a sporting point of view, the consideration is already absolutely unacceptable, says Marko angrily.
ntv expert Felix Görner said clearly: “Mercedes should ask itself whether you shouldn’t lose as a champion, in a fair way, without protesting. You should keep your feet still and concentrate fully on 2022.” Hamilton, the defeated series winner, had congratulated his rival fairly straight after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. “Truly a sporting greatness of his, to congratulate his successor right after the race, you can only take off your hat. You did the right thing, Lewis Hamilton,” commented Görner on the scene.
Mercedes, which had won the Constructors’ Championship for the eighth time in a row regardless of the outcome of the World Championship decision, has not yet made an official statement. But as Verstappen revealed during test drives on Tuesday, Mercedes sports director Toto Wolff has reported – namely to him personally. “Toto sent me a text message,” said Verstappen. The Austrian congratulated him, “that was very nice”.