Red Bull’s motorsport advisor has threatened to pull the company out of Formula 1 in the wake of the controversial finish to this year’s world championship.
Mercedes’ seven-year domination of the sport came to an end at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen claiming the title after a late-race safety car intervention.
The race director, Australian Michael Masi, is under fire for the way the restart was managed, with Mercedes claiming the proper processes weren’t followed, allowing Verstappen to pass Lewis Hamilton for the win.
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Mercedes protested the result immediately after the finish on Monday morning (AEDT).
Those protests were dismissed, but Mercedes has indicated it intends to appeal to the sport’s governing body, the FIA. Any appeal needs to be lodged by Friday morning.
But Red Bull’s Helmut Marko said it’s ridiculous that the result of the championship should remain up in the air while the matter is sorted.
“It is unworthy for the last race of the year that a decision on the result is postponed for so long,” he told Dutch media.
“That speaks in favour of the attitude of what I believe to be a bad loser who makes such protests and objections.
“We do not care. We are now the moral winner, one way or another.
“We broke their seven-year dominance with a young guy and a young, motivated team.
“It’s disgusting what they did after the race to protest when it was clear it would not work. This is a very bad loser for me.”
Mercedes are upset that race control initially said lapped cars would need to remain in place behind the safety car, giving Hamilton a buffer to Verstappen for the final-lap shootout.
The directive was then changed to allow the five cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves. With Verstappen on fresh tyres, Hamilton was a sitting duck on the final lap.
Marko is a controversial, outspoken and divisive figure within the sport, often using threats to get his own way. In the fallout from Abu Dhabi, he’s again warned that Red Bull will leave the sport unless things change.
“We will reconsider our involvement in Formula 1 if there is no thought given to how we can improve the regulations,” he said.
“The whole system needs to be reconsidered. The rules have to be simplified. The premise must be, ‘Let’s race’.”
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