Lewis Hamilton against Helmut Marko: “F1 should do something against racism”

“The words of Helmut Marko they were completely unacceptable, they are not something for which we apologize and everything is fine, I think more should be done.” Lewis Hamilton thus attacked the Red Bull consultant after the questionable statements against Sergio Perez. The 80-year-old apologized last week after blaming Perez for a performance not comparable to that of Verstappen or Vettel “as a South American”. But today in Singapore, when asked on the subject, Hamilton expressed his disappointment: “There are many people in the background who are really trying to fight this kind of thing – said the 7-time world champion – but it’s difficult to move if they are there people at the top who have the kind of mentality that prevents us from progressing.”

inappropriate comments

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Hamilton added to Sky Sports: “Although we say there is no room for any kind of discrimination within the sport – and there should be no room for that – to have leaders and people in his position making comments like That’s not good. It just goes to show how important it is to continue to do the work that I’m trying to do with my team and with the sport. We still have a lot of work to do to ensure that this is a more inclusive model environment.”

apologies in private

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Perez today said that in addition to Marko’s public apology, the Austrian also apologized to him in private. “Basically let’s move on – said Verstappen’s teammate – I have a personal relationship with him. Obviously those comments, when you read them in isolation, can appear very disrespectful. But knowing Helmut, having that personal relationship, helped me a lot to understand him I know he didn’t mean how negative it was, and personally I wasn’t offended at all.” Red Bull said it “recognizes and supports Dr. Marko’s apology. He also apologized privately to Checo.”