Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has targeted “English media” for what he perceives to be “unbalanced” coverage of Max Verstappen’s fourth Formula1 World Championship.
Ongoing contention between the Milton Keynes team and sections of UK-based media has been rife for some time, with Verstappen boycotting Sky Sports F1 over the Mexican Grand Prix weekend two years ago.
This year, the Dutchman has faced competition in the World Championship with Britain’s Lando Norris and having to battle the shortcomings of this year’s RB20, with Norris’ McLaren quicker for much of the campaign.
Writing in his column for Speedweek, Marko opined that, given Verstappen still managed to win another title, there has been a lack of due praise for his performances.
“Max has matured further this year,” he wrote.
“He was the best mentally, as a driver and in one-on-one combat, and he has learned to only achieve what is necessary.
“If anyone had said at the beginning of the year that he would wave Lewis Hamilton and the two Ferraris past because he was thinking about the World Championship, that would have been declared nonsense. But he did it because he knows what he has to concentrate on.”
Marko went on to say that it is “true that there is not necessarily an objective balance in the English media,” adding that perhaps the addition of Norris – the first time he seriously challenged for the title – played into a “phenomenon that always plays a role is that the person who comes on the scene as a new, potential star or hunter enjoys more sympathy than the established champion.
“But Max doesn’t care, he always says what he thinks and shows his emotions, and I think that’s right.”
Verstappen’s greatest year?
Since winning the title for the first time in 2021, Verstappen has consistently proved that he is the class of the field, dominating the next two years.
2024 forced Verstappen to show his brilliance via the medium of a car that was, by all accounts, not the fastest for large periods of the season.
Winning seven of the first 10 races, it appeared that it would be another year of Red Bull supremacy led by Verstappen, but Norris made an early statement with his first F1 victory in Miami, and the pair’s blossoming rivalry came to a head at the Austrian Grand Prix.
A collision with just eight laps to go forced both men to pit and forego the lead, handing an unlikely win to George Russell.
From then on, it would be the papaya cars that asserted the ascendency.
Norris continued to chip away at Verstappen’s lead, with wins at Zandvoort and Singapore, but Verstappen claimed the title at Las Vegas, with any lingering hopes of a first-world title for Norris appearing to slip away in Brazil.
At Interlagos, Verstappen produced one of the drives of his career to take a masterful wet-weather victory, one that Marko describes in his column as a “World Cup,” adding: “he outclassed everyone and proved once again that he is one of the best in the sport.”
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