Marko apologizes for Perez comments: 'That was wrong'

Helmut Marko has publicly apologised to Sergio Perez for the 'offensive remark' he made about the Red Bull Racing driver.

On the Sport und Talk programme on ServusTV, Marko stated that Perez was suffering from "form fluctuations" and that this might just have something to do with his "South American" heritage. This prompted a storm of criticism from the Red Bull advisor. Not only would his comments be generalising, Mexico is also part of North America.

Earlier, Marko responded, stating that he 'did not mean' the remarks like that. Now, a statement has appeared on ServusTV's website, in which the 80-year-old Austrian formally apologises to Perez.

"I would like to apologise for my offensive remark and want to make it absolutely clear that I do not believe that we can generalise about the people from any country, any race, any ethnicity. I was trying to make a point that Checo has fluctuated in his performance this year, but it was wrong to attribute this to his cultural heritage. I would like to formally apologise for that," Marko said in his statement.