Red Bull's Helmut Marko mockingly "thanks McLaren" for apparent driver mismanagement at F1 Italian GP

Red Bull chief advisor Helmut Marko has "thanked" McLaren for the team's apparent mismanagement of their drivers during the F1 Italian GP. The race in Monza saw Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri start the race on the front row. While the two got away in formation at turn 1, at turn 4 the Australian went around the outside of his teammate in an audacious move.

The move made Lando take evasive action that helped Charles Leclerc overtake him as well, leaving the Briton in P3.

What followed was McLaren being outfoxed by Ferrari in terms of strategy, as Charles Leclerc pulled off an impressive one-stop strategy to win the race. The most interesting takeaway, however, from the race was Oscar Piastri's audacious move on his teammate that perhaps ultimately cost McLaren the race win.

While this has led to conversations on how McLaren should manage this situation, Red Bull's Helmut Marko "thanked" the papaya-liveried team for their "sportsmanship".

Marko told De Telegraaf,

“A disappointing result? No way. We had seen this coming a bit and I want to congratulate Ferrari on the victory and thank McLaren for their sportsmanship. I appreciate that, and it makes our situation a bit better."

Marko also felt that because of events surrounding the McLaren drivers, there was less focus on Red Bull's lack of form in Monza than there might have otherwise been.

He said,

"You could see that on the first lap and that they did not change places later. In other words, our misperformance was not that noticeable. It could have been worse, but the gap is about the same as in Zandvoort.”

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"We lacked speed"- Helmut Marko on Red Bull's Monza race

Looking back at the F1 Italian GP, Red Bull went with the strategy of putting Max Verstappen on hard tires at the start, in contrast to the. The strategy didn't pay off, as the car didn't seem to have enough pace to truly make a challenge at the front.

Talking after the race, Helmut Marko said a higher finish at the checkered flag wasn't within the team's reach, either through the car's pace or through team strategy.

Marko said,

“In the race, neither the one-stop strategy nor the pace at the front was possible for us. We lacked speed. When Max pushed harder, the graining came up straight away. It’s damage limitation.”

While McLaren looks to find solutions for their two-pronged assault, on the drivers' and the constructors' championships, the Red Bull car has gone from being the best on the grid to fourth-fastest. With the number of races left in the second half of the season decreasing and rivals catching up, the team will need to find solutions pretty quickly.