Marko jokes: "Reliability? Nothing ever happens to Hamilton"

For the first time in the history of Formula 1, the Circus will put its tires in Saudi Arabia, on the brand new track in Jeddah. An appointment, the penultimate of the season, which will go down in history not only for this absolute novelty, but also because it could sanction the mathematical victory of Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship, as long as certain arrival conditions are met. At the moment, in fact, the Dutchman leads in the standings on the Mercedes rival, Lewis Hamilton, with an advantage of 8 eight points.

However, the already open and exciting challenge between the two riders will experience an unprecedented chapter on the occasion of the second of the three final stages of the championship in the Middle East, given the total inexperience of all the participants on the new track built on the shores of the Red Sea. An aspect that could therefore complicate the chances of world champion success Mad Max even before Abu Dhabi. The Head of the youth program intervened in this regard Helmut Marko, who commented on the odds of seeing his driver graduate world champion in Saudi Arabia: “Please don’t tell me about these calculations – he told the Austrian media – or I should talk about the 50 points that Max lost without being guilty ”.

Regardless of the concrete possibility of entering the drivers’ register for the first time, Marko also ruled out the hypothesis of being able to hope for a technical hitch or a finish outside Hamilton’s points zone, without saving a joke against of the rival team: “Nothing ever happens to Lewis, only Bottas retires with Mercedes “. In conclusion, the manager of the team that will arrive in Jeddah – also with the aim of bridging the 5 points gap that separate it from the three-point star in the constructors’ standings – finally returned to praise his Dutch driver, believing himself certain of the ability of the number 33 to adapt quickly to the new track: “Max trained on the simulator – he specified – even has one at home. The fact that he has never driven in Jeddah doesn’t worry him. Two laps will be enough for him to become familiar with the track. In Brazil we didn’t have a chance, while in Losail we made a mistake with the setup. Yet we are still ahead – he concluded – now we will have to fight in Jeddah, where Max will have several opportunities to do well ”.