F1 pundit Ted Kravitz claims Christian Horner unable to control 'loose cannon' Helmut Marko

Ted Kravitz and Christian Horner look at one another — Photo: © LAT Images

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F1 pundit Kravitz claims Horner unable to control 'loose cannon' Marko

Horner had a lot on his plate as Red Bull F1 team principal in 2023

Matthew Hobkinson Lead Editor

F1 Editor & Journalist

Thursday 4 January 2024 18:57

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Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz has claimed that Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was unable to 'control' Helmut Marko regarding his comments about Sergio Perez, with the pit-lane reporter labelling the Austrian as 'the definition of a loose cannon'.

Marko found himself in hot water after the Italian Grand Prix for his criticism of Perez that related to the Mexican's ethnicity.

"We know that he has problems in qualifying, he has fluctuations in form," Marko told Red Bull-owned Servus TV. "He is South American and he is just not as completely focused in his head as Max [Verstappen] is or as Sebastian [Vettel]."

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Perez of course hails from Guadalajara, Mexico – which is geographically in North America.

Helmut Marko (L) apologised to Sergio Perez (R) for his comments

Sky Sports pit lane reporter, Ted Kravitz, labelled Marko as a 'loose cannon'

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner had to answer questions after Marko's comments

Marko has since issued a public apology for his comments, which Perez accepted, but Kravitz – who was thoroughly impressed with Horner in 2023 – has questioned whether he could have perhaps done more to get on top of the situation.

Kravitz: Marko is an uncontrollable force

"I think the only way you could mark down Christian Horner this year is for the way that the Sergio Perez situation was dealt with and the way that he was not able to control Helmut Marko," Kravitz told the Sky Sports podcast.

"Helmut Marko is uncontrollable, he's an uncontrollable force. But Marko's unacceptable comments about Sergio Perez were not very quickly jumped on...

"Say what you want about Christian Horner but he is juggling some situations, some hot stones that you have got no idea how difficult they are, he is juggling some component and volatile parts.

"Max Verstappen, who can be shown that when the car isn't to his liking is very vocal about it and can have a short fuse on the radio with GP his engineer – we know that when things aren't going well.

Max Verstappen and GP are no strangers to having tense exchanges on team radio

"He's juggling Helmut Marko, who is the definition of a loose cannon. He's juggling Oliver Mintzlaff, his new boss at Red Bull Racing who is finding his way in charge of the racing programme since the passing as we said earlier, of Dietrich Mateschitz.

"He's juggling Checo Perez and and getting Checo back into what they want to do. And he's juggling everything else – the political side of Formula 1, so he is doing an amazing job considering the amount he's got to deal with."