Marko denies Brundle’s conspiracy: “Verstappen didn’t go slow on purpose”

Austrian dismisses Brundle’s plots

Martin Brundle – former pilot now commentator for Sky Sports UK – after the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort he hypothesized that Max Verstappen went rather slowly on purpose in the second stint in Holland to send a message and a signal to Red Bull about the technical difficulties the RB20 is experiencing.

Helmut Marko in his usual column hosted by the newspaper speedweek.com he denied Brundle’s hypothesis: “The assumption that Verstappen went slow on purpose is not founded. He simply stopped taking risks when he saw that he could not compete with Norris. Compared to Perez, he had a different set-up, with more aerodynamic load to try to make the car slide less. The choice did not work, Verstappen was vulnerable on the straight and still had degradation. We feared that Piastri would also overtake him, thank God he stopped behind Leclerc to whom we are very grateful”.

“The Zandvoort circuit was perfect for McLaren – added Marko – the cold temperatures have completed the work. There is no doubt, however, that we must improve and bring innovations that have benefits that are not only theoretical, but objective and confirmed by the stopwatch”.