Lewis Hamilton made a fiery statement after signing his new contract with Mercedes. The 7x champ mentioned how he still has some unfinished business left to take care of. It wouldn’t take a mastermind to decide that the unfinished business is his 8th title and beat Max Verstappen to it. However, the inability to do so in the last couple of years, along with the George Russell challenge, seems to have put Hamilton down. Amid all this, Helmut Marko came out to defend Verstappen on an issue that started 27 months back and, while doing so, scraped Hamilton’s wounds. But what issue? What did Marko say?

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have been on each other’s tail ever since the summer break ended. Russell seems to be wanting to make up ground on the 7x champ that he lost early in the season. After tension between the two at the Japanese GP, the Mercedes duo collided at the Qatar GP on Lap 1, forcing Hamilton to retire. Nonetheless, the 38-year-old took full responsibility for the crash. 

However, that didn’t seem to bode that well with Helmut Marko. The Red Bull taskmaster in a recent interview was advised how Hamilton has now started making mistakes. Without hesitation, Marko explained how Hamilton always made mistakes and it’s just that he’s accepting them now. Helmut Marko’s jab was pointed towards the 2021 season where Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, while fighting for the title, collided multiple times and the Dutchman was more often than not portrayed as guilty for the crash. 

While the rivalry was there since the start of the season, all hell broke loose at the 2021 Silverstone GP after Max Verstappen’s massive shunt into the wall initiated by Hamilton clipping the Dutchman’s rear. It was soon followed by the crash at Monza, where Max Verstappen ended up with his Red Bull on top of Hamilton’s Mercedes. Regardless, during an interview with OE24, Marko defended Verstappen as he said, “May I correct that, please: Now he’s starting to admit mistakes,” when told that Hamilton is now making mistakes. 

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Regardless of Marko’s jab at Hamilton, the 7x champion is within touching distance of taking P2 away from Sergio Perez. What does Marko make of Hamilton catching up to Perez?

“Not going to give team orders”: Helmut Marko on Sergio Perez’s P2 fight in the championship

Sergio Perez made a brilliant start to the season but has been tumbling down. So much so that Lewis Hamilton is only 30 points behind him. And had Hamilton not crashed at Qatar, the gap would’ve probably been cut in half. With Sergio Perez struggling, one would expect Red Bull and Verstappen to help Checo finish P2. But that’s not the case here. Despite never finishing 1-2 in the drivers championship, Helmut Marko made a shocking statement.

Max Verstappen denied Red Bull’s team orders last year where he was asked to let Checo through in Brazil to help him with finishing P2 in the Championship. However, the Dutchman denied it. Keeping that incident in mind, Helmut Marko told ORF, “We are not going to give team orders – we’ve seen how that turned out with Max before.”

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What did you make of Helmut Marko’s jab at Lewis Hamilton?