Photo: Race Pictures

Sky Sports pundit takes final jab at Marko after top advisor's departure

11:40, 13 Dec

byKada Sarkozi

Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz took a final jab at Helmut Marko after it was announced that the Austrian top advisor would leave Red Bull.

"There's something deep inside me that is sorry to see the old guy go. Something very small, and I will take it up, put it in a small bag, and throw it in a bin when we finish this podcast. Because I think his time has finished."

- Ted Kravitz

This came after the season finale of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen ended up missing out on his fifth title in a row by two points despite winning on Sunday.

After the race, external advisor Marko left his position at Red Bull Racing, a decision that was entirely his own.

Speaking about the Austrian, Kravitz recalled the moments during the Sebastian Vettel era when Marko would call him Christian Horner's 'trained monkey.'

He said on The F1 Show podcast: "Christian was over there talking to me, and he'd be there. And he'd say to Christian, ‘oh, well, anyway, I see your trained monkey is waiting for you to do the interview, so you better get on with it.’ And then he'd go on. He used to call me like this trained monkey that would follow Christian Horner around with a microphone. I was like, ‘yeah, good one, Helmut.’"

Marko in the paddock - Photo: Race Pictures

He continued: "For all his faults, the stupid comments about Antonelli, the disgusting comments about Perez and blaming his lack of form on his ethnicity. For all of that, he was a hard old school racer. And when ‘GP’ was in tears on the pit wall, who came and gave him a ‘it's all right, mate?’ It was Helmut."

Kravitz takes a final jab at Marko

In conclusion, the Briton is glad to see Marko leave Formula 1. He added: "There's something deep inside me that is sorry to see the old guy go.

"Something very small, and I will take it up, put it in a small bag, and throw it in a bin when we finish this podcast. Because I think his time has finished."

GPblog's interview with Marko

After his departure, the former top advisor talked to our website. Find the best bits from this conversation below!

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