Marko understands Mercedes: 'They were already prepared for the big party'

Max Verstappen was initially only able to enjoy his world title for less than an hour, when Mercedes announced that they would be lodging a double protest. Understandably, the protests were met with outright disappointment from Red Bull Racing. Helmut Marko took a hard stance against his rivals, but he has since apologised for his comments.

Marko called Toto Wolff and his team 'bad losers' and thought it was unworthy of the World Championship to wait for the result in such a way. Looking back, he put his statements into perspective somewhat. "It came from the situation of the whole season. The use of words was maybe a bit exaggerated, but those are the emotions," the Red Bull chief explained to ServusTV.

In the meantime, he can understand the reaction of Mercedes, who thought that they'd secured the championship. "I saw that they had all prepared themselves to go upstairs for the big victory party," says the Austrian.

He continued: "Then all of a sudden a safety car came. Not by Yuki Tsunoda or anyone else, but by a Mercedes driver. Our team acted sensationally by immediately changing to soft tyres. Then Hamilton had no chance." Even if Hamilton had also changed to soft tyres, Verstappen would have overtaken him, according to Marko.