McLaren chief slams Red Bull boss over ‘inappropriate’ Lando Norris mental health comment

Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko made a disparaging comment about Lando Norris’ mental strength, after the Brit has talked in the past about struggling with his mental health

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown has slammed Helmut Marko after the Red Bull adviser suggested driver Lando Norris is “not the strongest mentally”.

The 81-year-old’s comment came when he gave his verdict on the current state of the Formula 1 drivers’ title race. Max Verstappen leads Norris by 52 points but the McLaren driver has been closing the gap at a steady rate.

Despite that, Marko backed his colleague to get the job done and took a shot at Norris in the process. “[Verstappen] is the best mentally and as a driver. In addition, Norris has weak race starts and he is also not the strongest mentally,” he said.

That latter part of his comment irked Brown who leapt to the defence of his driver. Norris has been open about his mental health struggles and his American boss felt it was a below-the-belt move from Marko to use that against the 24-year-old Brit.

Asked about it in a press conference at this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, Brown said: “I read Helmut’s comments, which I thought were disappointing, but not surprising. Lando has been kind of an ambassador for mental health. Toto [Wolff, Mercedes team principal] has spoken about mental health.

So I think it is a serious issue that we’ve tried to talk about, to bring to the forefront, make it okay to talk about. To choose to poke at that situation, I think is pretty inappropriate and kind of sets us back 10-20 years.

“It is all fun and games in how some people go racing and what tactics they use from a sporting perspective, but I thought that one was in pretty poor taste.”

Marko has not been the only Red Bull figure to engage in mind games in the build-up to this weekend’s Austin race. Verstappen himself may have been trying to get into his title rival’s head by suggesting Oscar Piastri, in the other McLaren, should not settle for a supporting role given his strong performances this year.

The Dutchman said: “For me he is definitely not a [number two driver] and if I was him I would never accept it… He is just a great F1 driver who does not deserve it to give up wins and positions and play second fiddle because he is asked to.”

Brown smiled as he was asked to respond to those comments and waved away any suggestion that Verstappen might have got under Norris’ skin. He replied: “No, not at all. I saw Max’s comments – I like Max a lot, we have had some good chats this year, so I think that is all part of the sport. Lando does not have any issue with it.”