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Helmut Marko says he tipped Niki Lauda that “Lewis would be available” back in 2012, because Red Bull “thought Lewis would be less of a threat to us at Mercedes than at McLaren”.
It’s well known that back in 2012, Mercedes’ non-executive chairman Niki Lauda approached Lewis Hamilton to try to get him to move from McLaren to Mercedes.
Lauda’s countryman, Red Bull’s advisor Dr Helmut Marko reveals he was the one to recommend the Briton to Lauda, and admits this turned out to be “a misjudgement” on his part.
“I gave him 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.
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“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,” he concluded.
Considering how the partnership between Hamilton and Mercedes became one of the most successful driver-team partnerships in history, Marko certainly has a point.
