Brown, Wolff, trying to ’cause unrest’ at Red Bull

McLaren is trying its best to create "unrest" at Red Bull, according to Dr Helmut Marko.

As Max Verstappen and Lando Norris battle for the world championship, their teams have been jousting over technical innovations and stewards’ penalties.

But a more personal war-of-words between team bosses escalated in Austin, after team advisor Marko suggested Norris lacks the mental toughness of Verstappen and often messes up his race starts.

So after Norris once again lost positions from pole at the start of the US GP, Osterreich newspaper asked 81-year-old Marko if he felt vindicated.

"There was a big fuss again just because I said that Norris is a bad starter," the Austrian smiled, admitting that he also talked about Norris’ mental toughness.

"But I never talked about mental health," Marko insisted. "Only that Max is mentally stronger."

Indeed, McLaren CEO Zak Brown had reacted to Marko’s original comments about Norris by suggesting the Austrian had set back the conversation about mental health in F1 by decades.

"You can’t twist the wording like that," Marko hit back. "That’s a deliberate attempt to cause unrest. But we know the games played by Zak Brown.

"He deliberately stirs up trouble wherever he can."

Brown is also often backed up by Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, who even suggested FIA stewards who penalised Norris for his Austin overtake on Verstappen were biased in favour of Red Bull.

"The stewards acted according to the rules," Marko replied. "There is no room for criticism.

"But the solution would be quite simple - you just need to install something like what we did at the Red Bull Ring, where if you drive out there, you automatically lose time and there is no subsequent drama with penalties."

Wolff also said Red Bull’s T-tray adjustment mechanism is "outrageous".

"The FIA can take another look if they want to," Marko replied. "All the teams have something like that in some form or another.

"It’s just a device that makes it easier for the mechanics to adjust the ride height so that they don’t have to spend ages installing and removing it."

Finally, some think the result in Austin was so significant that Verstappen is now almost guaranteed his fourth consecutive drivers’ title.

"I said even before Austin that he would win the world championship," said Marko. "Now it looks much better, even though we still have five races to go."