Zak Brown challenges Helmut Marko amid T-tray issue: Red Bull advisor responds in kind to his rival. Helmut Marko has countered the statements made by Zak Brown yesterday in the Austin.

No holds barred

As the races and press conferences go by, the duel between McLaren and Red Bull increasingly resembles an all-out war.

Following the dispute over flexible wings, which was won by the Milton Keynes team, and the ban on the device patented by the latter in the T-tray area, it is now the executives of both teams who are providing entertainment at the microphones. On the eve of the United States Grand Prix weekend at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Helmut Marko had weighed in on who between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris had a better chance of winning the 2024 Formula One title, with the Austrian targeting the mental health issues highlighted by the McLaren driver.

The comments of the Austrian Red Bull boss were not particularly well received by McLaren’s CEO, who responded to his rival yesterday: “I read some comments that seemed disappointing but not surprising to me.” – he pointed out – “Lando is somewhat of a mental health ambassador. Toto Wolff has spoken about mental health. So I think it’s a serious issue that we’ve tried to bring to light and make acceptable.” – he added.

“Therefore, choosing to poke fun at this situation I believe is quite inappropriate and takes us back ten or twenty years. But it’s amusing how some people compete and the tactics they use from a sporting perspective. I thought it was in very poor taste.”

Probed by Motorsport Magazin about Brown’s comments, Marko, as usual, did not hold back in his judgments: “I was asked who will win the world championship and I answered that it will be Max, because he is the strongest mentally and because he is the fastest driver. If you look at how many times Max gains positions or maintains his position at the start and how Lando behaves in this regard, I think it’s obvious.”