Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has held his hands up and apologised for initial comments he made at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix over Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton's incident on lap 37.
Formula 1 is gearing up for an exciting finale between the two title rivals but the ripples of what happened in Saudi are still being felt this midweek.
Indeed, Marko has had to come out and apologise for initially claiming that Max did not brake heavily in front of Lewis as they came together on lap 37, with it since being shown that the Dutchman did plant his foot on the anchor way too sharply at the time.
Both Verstappen and Hamilton were lucky to escape without more damage and it's clear they were battling for the DRS line, with confusion reigning after what had already been a frankly bonkers race to that point.
Originally, Marko had this to say soon after the event based on information he'd been given:
“We feel we have been treated unfairly. We are working to prove Max’s braking pressure did not increase when he crashed with Hamilton,” said the Austrian.
“Hamilton simply misjudged and drove into Max’s car. Unfortunately, that left two big cuts in our rear tyre. That’s why we couldn’t attack anymore.”
To F1-insider, though, he's since had this to say:
“At the time of the television interview, I passed on exactly the information I had previously received from the engineers.
“They obviously weren’t right, so I’m sorry.”
Fair enough to Marko for at least apologising but it perhaps serves as a reminder that in F1 it's best to let every bit of data come out and for the dust to settle before passing comment - easier said than done in this high-drama environment though, of course.
