Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko came out after the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix and accused Kimi Antonelli of letting Lando Norris by in the dying stages of the race to help the British race in the championship. The 82-year-old has now issued an apology to the Mercedes racer, as the rookie has been bombarded with death threats.
A flop strategic call from McLaren to not out under the safety car when everyone else did put them on the back foot at the Qatar Grand Prix. Despite the high pace, they were not able to overcome Max Verstappen's masterclass.
After the final pitstop, Lando Norris came out in P5 and chased Kimi Antonelli. The young racer had an oversteer moment in the last couple of laps and went off the track, which led the championship leader to pass him. For a championship gap that would have been 10 points going into AbuDhabi, it then became 12 points for Verstappen.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko came out after the Qatar GP and accused Kimi Antonelli of letting Lando Norris pass.
“It was twice where he more or less waved Lando by. It was so obvious. Antonelli now helps our main competitor, in Austria he was crashing [Verstappen] in the rear,” said Marko
Since the race, Antonelli has been bombarded with death threats and online abuse of letting the championship lead when it was a wrong assessment on his end. Helmut Marko came out and apologised to Kimi Antonelli for his statements.
"I took another close look at the footage. The first time, Antonelli could have held his ground a little better [as Oscar Piastri passed him into Turn 1]. The second time, it was a driving error and not intentional. I'm sorry that Antonelli got so much flak online. To clarify once again: he didn't let Norris pass on purpose,” said Helmut Marko (via F1-insider)
Max Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, also signalled in the team radio that Antonelli let Norris pass, but then had a conversation with Toto Wolff following the race and cleared the air.
Toto Wolff criticises Helmut Marko after accusations against Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes Boss Toto Wolff defended his driver following the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix, as Antonelli was accused of letting Lando Norris by to help the Mercedes customer team racer in the championship. The Brackley-based team's CEO and Team principal lambasted Helmut Marko for the accusations against Kimi Antonelli.
“Bless him, Helmut. This is total, utter nonsense that blows my mind even to hear that. We're fighting for P2 in the championship, which is important for us. Kimi's fighting for a potential P3 [in the race].”
“I mean, how brainless can you be to even say something like this? And it annoys me, because I'm annoyed with the race itself, how it went. I'm annoyed with the mistake at the end. I'm annoyed with other mistakes. And then hearing such nonsense blows my mind.”
Since then, Red Bull came out and issued a public statement and apologised to Kimi Antonelli for the accusations.