Helmut Marko reveals his CAREER-CHANGING Lewis Hamilton mistake

Hamilton, Marko and Verstappen on the podium — Photo: © LAT Images

Lewis Hamilton

Marko reveals his CAREER-CHANGING Hamilton mistake

The whole Formula 1 world could have looked completely different if not for one moment

Chris Deeley

Friday 21 April 2023 08:57

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Red Bull legend Helmut Marko has admitted that he played a part in pushing Lewis Hamilton into Mercedes' arms in 2012.

The Austrian advisor told Niki Lauda that the then one-time world champion would be available for the 2013 season, hoping to push the Brit to a team where he would be less competitive and thus less of a threat to Red Bull.

That tactic worked for exactly one year, Hamilton finishing fourth in the drivers' standings in 2013 behind both Red Bulls and Fernando Alonso, before reeling off six titles in seven years – the other going to his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

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Marko confessed that, unsurprisingly, he would make a difference decision if given the opportunity to go back in time.

Not his finest decision

"I gave [Lauda] some information that Lewis would be available," Marko said. "Of course I was not being altruistic. At the time, we thought Lewis would be less of a threat to us at Mercedes than at McLaren, for whom he was driving at the time.

"In retrospect, that was a complete misjudgement, although at the time it was really not foreseeable. But with the knowledge I have today, I would definitely not do that again."

It took Red Bull until 2021 to win another (highly controversial) drivers' title once Hamilton and Mercedes' reign started, and until 2022 to reclaim the constructors' title.

However, they're finally looking like the dominant force Marko must've envisaged a decade ago, with three wins out of three in 2023 and a comfortable lead in the drivers' and constructors' standings.