Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko is baffled that Max Verstappen received a time penalty during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman left the track during a battle with Oscar Piastri at the start of the race, yet managed to maintain the lead. Verstappen was penalized by the stewards for this, but according to Marko, it was nothing more than a racing incident.
“In my opinion, it was a racing incident,” Marko defends Verstappen’s early move in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. “If you look at Formula 2, there were two or three similar incidents, and only Browning (F2 driver) received a warning. No one was penalized. But here, in the first corner, there was a penalty.”
The Red Bull advisor reveals why the Austrian racing team decided not to give the position back to Piastri. “Overtaking is almost impossible here. We had better chances with the pit stops, and Piastri could get caught in traffic. We thought we had more opportunities if we left it as it was.”
‘Car Becomes More Predictable’
Marko even dares to suggest that without the time penalty, Verstappen would have won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from Piastri. “Max had the speed.” This is a stark contrast to the Bahrain Grand Prix a week earlier, where Red Bull faced one problem after another. “Compared to Bahrain, we have made a lot of progress,” Marko also acknowledges. “The track (in Jeddah) is also better for us, faster corners, but we are making strides forward and our car is becoming more predictable.”
