Perez accepts Marko apology for comments based on nationality

Sergio Perez says he accepted Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko’s apology to him for comments he made that related to his Latin American heritage.

Marko (pictured above with Perez) was speaking on Servus TV after the Italian Grand Prix and said of Perez: “We know that he has problems in qualifying, he has fluctuations in form — he is South American and he is just not as completely focused in his head as Max (Verstappen) is or as Sebastian (Vettel).”

The comments were then further compounded, with Reuters quoting Marko as telling Austria’s OE24 website: “It wasn’t meant that way. I meant that a Mexican has a different mentality than a German or a Dutchman. But who knows, maybe it’s controlled.”

Marko issued a statement apologizing over the weekend and Perez says he has spoken to the 80-year-old, and that there are no lingering issues between the two.

“I had a private conversation with him,” Perez said. “He did apologize and that to me was the main thing. Yeah, basically we move on. I have a personal relationship with him, and I think you can always have those feelings, when you see that sort of stuff. Knowing the person helps a lot because I know he doesn’t mean it that way. I took his apology, because I know Helmut from the personal relationship that we have, that he doesn’t mean it that way.”

When it was put to Perez that there have been previous concerns about anti-Latin driver treatment raised by himself and Fernando Alonso, the Mexican insisted he didn’t feel that was the case with Marko’s latest statements.