Red Bull Racing consultant Helmut Marko has needed to apologize for racist remarks aimed toward F1 driver Sergio Pérez. During an interview after last week’s Italian Grand Prix, Helmut Marko said Checo’s performance was on account of his “cultural heritage,” per the BBC, and the 80-year old Red Bull advisor went on to unfavorably compare Checo’s Mexican nationality to that of a German or a Dutchman.
Not only did Marko have the gall accountable Checo’s performance on being Mexican, but he was confidently incorrect when describing the F1 driver’s origin, implying the Mexican pilot is from South America, which is, uh, incorrect.
Marko went on to say, “We all know that he has problems in qualifying, he has fluctuations in form, he’s South American and he’s just not as completely focused in his head as Max [Verstappen] is or as Sebastian [Vettel]” because the Guardian reports.
And when Marko tried to walk back his statements later, he only made it worse, in line with the BBC:
The Austrian website www.oe24.at reported him as saying: “It wasn’t meant that way. I meant that a Mexican has a distinct mentality than a German or a Dutchman. But who knows, possibly it’s controlled.”
Perez and Verstappen shared two wins each in the primary 4 races of the season, after which Perez was talking about difficult for the world title.
That is reportedly not the primary time that Helmut Marko has incorrectly said that Checo is from South America. However the thing is Sergio Pérez was born in Guadalajara, which is the capital of Jalisco, certainly one of Mexico’s more readily recognized states.
Guadalajara is a serious metropolis. Hell, it’s the topic of a well-known song named after the capital city, which has been performed by famous Mexicans reminiscent of Vicente Fernandez, AKA ’Chente. You’ll think an advisor to Red Bull’s Formula 1 team would know where his team’s drivers are from.
But, no. Helmut Marko is under the impression that Mexicans are from South America, despite Mexico being a part of the North American continent, and, due to this fact, by definition, making Sergio Pérez a North American — the identical as any F1 driver from the U.S. or Canada. Nobody’s bothered to correct Marko until now, it seems, prompting the 80-year old to issue the next statement:
Concerning my remark about Sergio Perez, ServusTV Sport and Talk, Monday September 4: I would really like to apologise for my offensive remark and have the desire to make it absolutely clear that I don’t imagine that we will generalise in regards to the people from any country, any race, any ethnicity. I used to be attempting to make some extent that Checo has fluctuated in his performance this yr, nevertheless it was incorrect to attribute this to his cultural heritage.
Notice that Marko makes no mention of the factual error he committed. That’s, his remarks were at the start racist, and, second, just plain incorrect.
This Article First Appeared At jalopnik.com
