Marko doesn't even use Verstappen's 'excuse': 'That mistake was not decisive'

Red Bull Racing achieved only two victories with Max Verstappen in 2020. There was a great opportunity for the team in Turkey, but Helmut Marko is still disappointed when he thinks back to that race weekend.

In Turkey Red Bull Racing, and especially Max Verstappen, was unbeatable. On the slippery asphalt Verstappen was ahead in the practice sessions as well as in the first and second qualifying sessions. At that moment Red Bull seemed to be on its way to the second victory of the season, but everything still fell apart.

''We were the big losers in Istanbul. We dominated every session, Q1, Q2 and then there is a team that optimised the air pressure perfectly and they are on pole. For Verstappen it was the only race this season that he became impatient," Marko says in an interview with Motorsport-total.com. However, he also blames the team.

''Normally we are world champions with pit stops, but the crucial pit stop didn't work because three mechanics had coronavirus and the replacements didn't do the right thing in that millisecond. Instead of 1.8 the pit stop now lasted 3.7 seconds as far as I can remember and that brought Verstappen behind Perez," says Marko.

It's surely not fair to expect replacement mechanics to be up to the usual standards, and Verstappen ruined his own race by spinning twice anyway.