Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton is a strong and competitive driver who has won seven world titles solely because of his exceptional talent and hard racing. However, sometimes the hard racing often lands him trouble. Everyone knows the kind of insane battles he has had with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen over the past couple of seasons.
Not just Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton never shies away from a fight with any car that endangers his podium finishes. Those moments of hard racing have also resulted in multiple crashes for which the Briton has received criticism in the past. Citing one of them, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has accused Hamilton of destroying one of its ex-driver’s careers through unnecessary aggression.
Helmut Marko Blames Lewis Hamilton For Destroying Alex Albon’s Confidence
Alex Albon, now with Williams Racing, was once promoted to drive for Red Bull after an impressive performance with Toro Rosso. He drove for the Austrian team for two seasons from 2019-2021. He was eventually demoted and later ousted from the team due to a lack of significant performance. Hence, Helmut Marko, the drink-based team’s chief advisor, has blamed Mercedes’ driver, Lewis Hamilton, for the Thai-Brit driver’s downfall. For a little context, Hamilton and Albon were involved in two major crashes which denied the latter much-deserved podium finishes.
Marko, in an interview, said that after crashing with Lewis Hamilton and losing two much-deserved wins, Alex Albon’s confidence was shattered. At that time, he was under intense pressure to put up a performance. Hence, those two races were his best bet. However, an error from the British driver took that glory away from Albon. The Red Bull veteran even went on to blame Hamilton for “destroying” Albon’s career. He later admitted that if the Thai driver had won those two races, his future with Red Bull would have been different. At that time, the team needed two drivers to win the championship. With Max Verstappen collecting good points, the team had to let Albon go for the sake of securing the constructors’ championship.
Alex Albon Refutes Helmut Marko’s Comments
However, the man at the center of the debate, Alex Albon, does not believe Lewis Hamilton was solely responsible for what happened to him at Red Bull. He feels that the British driver made an honest mistake and even apologized after the race. Albon also believes that he could have done a little better to avoid a crash that happened in Brazil.
The Williams driver said that he had analyzed a lot of crash videos in the past. He noticed that in most of the crashes, it’s never entirely a particular driver’s fault. It’s always 50-50. Hence, he gave a clean chit to Lewis Hamilton and took the blame for his downfall on himself. This is not the first time Helmut Marko has attacked Hamilton like this. Marko even accused Hamilton of deliberately crashing into Verstappen in 2021 because he could not handle a loss from a 25-year-old. The Mercedes driver is yet to comment on this whole matter.