McLaren team boss Zak Brown on Friday slammed Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko’s comments on Lando Norris’s mental strength as “tasteless”.
Speaking to reporters at the United States Grand Prix ahead of sprint qualifying, Brown said he had read the comments, made by Marko, and said he found them “disappointing, but not surprising.”
Marko, 81, told Motorsport Magazin that Red Bull “know Norris has some mental weaknesses. I’ve read about some of the rituals he needs to do to perform well on race day.”
He recently claimed that Red Bull driver and world champion Max Verstappen, who has not won in eight races and is defending a 52-point race lead in the championship, held an advantage over title rival Norris due to his “mental strength”.
Brown said: “I read elements, comments which I thought were disappointing but not surprising. Lando has been kind of an ambassador for mental health.
“(Mercedes team chief) Toto Wolff has spoken about mental health. So I think it’s a serious issue that we’ve tried to talk about to bring to the forefront, make it okay to talk about.
“So to poke at that situation, I think is pretty inappropriate and kind of sets us back 10, 20 years, but it’s 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.”
Brown added that Norris was “very excited for these final six races and the sprints,” he said.
“He’s as focussed as ever.”
str/dj
