Red Bull’s Helmut Marko twists the knife after Lewis Hamilton lapped by Max Verstappen - ‘Maybe he should have retired!'
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Published 25/04/2022 at 09:33 GMT
Lewis Hamilton went toe-to-toe with Max Verstappen in the 2021 Formula One title race. On Sunday, Hamilton was lapped by Verstappen at the Emilia Romagna GP, summing up the Mercedes driver’s season so far, with the seven-time world champion eventually finishing 13th. He is seventh in the driver standings, but says he is definitely out of contention for a record eighth crown.
Hamilton - 'worst that it's felt' as he finishes 13th
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko was all smiles when suggesting Lewis Hamilton may have wished he retired at the end of last season after the Mercedes driver was lapped by Max Verstappen on Sunday.
In the fourth race of the campaign, Verstappen closed the gap on championship leader Charles Leclerc with victory at the Emilia Romagna GP.
Verstappen has recorded two wins and two DNFs so far, and while a late Leclerc mistake saw him finish sixth, seven-time champion Hamilton was down in 13th as his difficult season continues.
Hamilton’s future in the sport was unclear after he narrowly lost the title to Verstappen last year, but having returned to the paddock, Marko joked Hamilton may be regretting his decision to stay in F1.
"I mean, he was lapped by us," Marko told Sky Sports when asked what must be going through Hamilton’s mind right now. "Maybe he is thinking he should have stopped last year!"
Hamilton has already conceded his title fight is over. He said: “There's no question about that, but I'll still keep working as hard as I can to try and somehow pull it back together somehow."
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said “sorry” to Hamilton on the team radio for the “undrivable”, and afterwards said: "We are not good enough for a world champion, not worthy for a world champion. We just need to fix the car.
"Lewis deserves better from us. But we are a team, so we all need to do the upmost in order to provide him with a machine that is able to fight for the front positions.
"The guy is the best driver in the world and he is just not having the machine and the equipment underneath him to be able to execute."
Meanwhile, Marko was pleased to see Verstappen put points on the board after his DNF in Australia, with Sergio Perez’s second place making it a first one-two for six years for Red Bull.
“Very important after our problems in Bahrain and Australia. Another 1-2, the last one was 2016 in Malaysia, so it was about time,” Marso added.
“It shows we are competitive and that we are there. Twice [Verstappen] lost 18 points, so he would have easily been ahead, but there are so many races coming. We know we have a strong package, the championship will be very exciting, hopefully it doesn’t go to the last race like last year.”
“If we put real pressure, [Ferrari] are making mistakes. But it’s a very sporting friendly between Ferrari and us.”
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