Helmut Marko blasts Max Verstappen for lack of respect after Hungarian trophy incident

Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has blasted the team’s lead driver Max Verstappen for his lack of respect over his first place trophy at last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Whilst standing on the podium McLaren driver Lando Norris smashed his bottle of champagne down onto the first place podium which caused the liquid to burst out of the top.

However, in the process of his iconic bottle smash the British driver, 23, managed to knock Verstappen’s, 25, trophy off of the podium, shattering it into several pieces. Both Verstappen and Norris, who finished second, were seen laughing at the accident before the Dutch driver picked up his trophy.

Marko has since urged Verstappen to be more respectful in future, after the £34,557 porcelain trophy was broken. Hungarian F1 journalist, Sandor Meszaros, stated that all the trophies for the Hungarian Grand Prix were handmade by Herend Porcelain Manufactory and took six months to make.

The Red Bull chief  told Austrian site OE24: “The Hungarians are famous for their love of valuable porcelain. Even in my day, there were beautiful bowls and vases. The copy of the trophy is coming to us at the factory, and I’ll teach Max to appreciate the original that he’s getting replaced. That’s Hungarian tradition, young people have to understand that.”

Following the incident, Norris made light of the incident by joking that it was Verstappen’s fault. Norris said: “Max just placed it too close to the edge. It fell over, I guess. Not my problem, it’s his. That’s Max’s trophy. Mine is in perfect shape. I happily broke it. I was annoyed I was P2”

Verstappen’s success has secured Red Bull a new record as the team took home 12 consecutive wins. The team has now surpassed the record set by McLaren in 1988 with Aryton Senna and Alain Prost.

Verstappen said: “Twelve wins in a row is just incredible. What we’ve been going through the last few years is unbelievable and, hopefully, we can keep this momentum going for a long time.”