Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has issued an apology to Sergio Perez for what he recognises was an “offensive remark” against the Mexican driver.
Marko landed himself in hot water following the Italian Grand Prix when he referenced Perez’s ethnicity – geographically incorrect in any case – as a reason behind the 33-year-old’s poor qualifying form this season.
Perez qualified fifth for the race at Monza, four-tenths of a second behind polesitting team-mate Max Verstappen.
Speaking on Red Bull’s in-house ServusTV Sport and Talk programme about Perez, Marko said: “We know that he has problems in qualifying, fluctuations in form. He is South American and he is just not as completely focused in his head as Max or Sebastian (Vettel).”
It is not the first time Marko has described Perez as South American even though Mexico is in North America.
Marko then rubbed salt into the wounds in attempting to clarify his comments to Austria’s oe24. He said: “It wasn’t meant that way. I meant that a Mexican has a different mentality than a German or a Dutchman. But who knows, maybe it’s controlled.”
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The 80-year-old has since been forced to finally admit his error and say sorry to Perez via a statement on ServusTV’s website.
“Concerning my remark about Sergio Perez, ServusTV Sport and Talk, Monday, September 4: I would like to apologise for my offensive remark and want to make it absolutely clear that I do not believe that we can generalise about people from any country, any race, any ethnicity,” said Marko.
“I was trying to make a point that Checo has fluctuated in his performance this year, but it was wrong to attribute this to his cultural heritage.”
Earlier this year, Perez endured a wretched run in qualifying, failing to reach Q3 for five consecutive races whilst Verstappen netted pole, going on to win all the races that have contributed to his record-breaking run of 10 successive victories.
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