“That was a serious misjudgement,” says Helmut Marko of Max Verstappen’s lunge on George Russell.
The Austrian has joined the growing list of those critical of the Dutchman’s move which brings him to within one penalty point of a race ban.
“Max suddenly accelerated and all hell broke loose,” the Austrian told Servus TV. “That was a serious misjudgement.
“He was already at odds with Russell,” he added, referring to numerous encounters last season. “With incidents and bad decisions, emotions have run high.”
Post-race Verstappen was unwilling to talk about the incident but the following day took to social media to admit that what he did was “not right” and “should never have happened”.
“Sleeping on it certainly helped,” admits Marko. “Everyone goes their own way. When Max is in that mood, it’s better to leave him alone.”
In terms of the potential race ban, which means that Verstappen must keep out of trouble until at least the very end of this month, Marko is confident the Dutchman will behave.
“The punishment is appropriate,” he said. “It won’t happen that he behaves badly in Canada and then doesn’t start in Austria. He’s a racer who knows his limits.
“The whole weekend was sobering for us,” he admitted. “Basically, we were three-tenths behind with a car that was too slow.
“We thought we were on a par, but we saw again that McLaren is vastly superior,” he added.
“We hope that our car will be competitive again in Canada. At the moment, Max does not have a car with which he can become world champion. But only he can cope with it at all at the moment. If everything fits, we’ll be just as fast as McLaren.
“But that’s only every third or fourth race. McLaren is always there. We’re not giving up yet, but it’s going to be difficult.”
