With Red Bull caught up in the midst of a media storm following the Malaysian Grand Prix Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko tried to deflect attention away from his team.
The very public fall out at Red Bull had been played over the world feed for everyone to hear, while the body language and interviews after the race needed no interpreting.
Three-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel, ignored direct instructions from his race engineer Guillaume [Rocky] Rocquelin and his team boss Christian Horner over the radio during the Grand Prix and instead opted to race against his team-mate Mark Webber for the race win.
The German thought that he was the quicker driver and defied his team orders, while Webber, did as instructed and turned down his engine settings to look after the tyres to complete the race without dramas after the final pit-stop.
Webber claimed that Vettel would continue to get protection from the team, a clear stab at the fact that Red Bull show a clear bias towards their World Champion.
In a rather transparent bid to deflect some of the attention away from them Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko told Sky Sports that Red Bull were ‘not like at Mercedes where there’s a clear number one and number two’.
Now if Marko had made the claim against Ferrari then no-one would have really battered an eye lid as everyone knows that Fernando Alonso gets preferential treatment.
But the snide remark was aimed at Mercedes because they to had given a team-order to finish in track position and hold station, but because their drivers behaved themselves that apparently showed favouritism to Lewis Hamilton who made the move to Mercedes from McLaren during the winter.
‘That is rubbish, They [Red Bull] have a clear one and two, they always have. And that is why they have the problems they have always had. Hamilton said.
The 2008 Formula One World Champion continued to strongly deny the claims following his first podium for his new team and once again apologised to team-mate Nico Rosberg for the team orders given by team principal Ross Brawn.
‘We don’t have a one and two here. I have always said, from the moment I was speaking to the team, that I wanted equality and that I didn’t want to be favoured.
‘They didn’t even offer to favour me but I just wanted to make the point that I am not a driver that comes and requests that like a lot of other drivers do.
‘You have to be able to look yourself in the mirror and say you won fair and square. Just like in Malaysia, I don’t feel like I won my spot fair and square. Although I did drive a decent race, I don’t feel spectacular about it.’
Hamilton hits back at Helmut Marko
