Jul.29 (GMM) Dr Helmut Marko is confident Red Bull will be able to put Max Verstappen’s Silverstone crash “in a different light” during an FIA hearing on Thursday.
The championship leaders are challenging Lewis Hamilton’s in-race, 10-second penalty for the clash that still enabled him to win the British GP.
Top official Dr Marko says the Austrian camp has “new evidence” ready that will “put the accident in a different light” when the video hearing takes place in Hungary.
“We are bringing new facts that were not available to us at the time the race was suspended,” the 78-year-old told RTL.
“This evidence is being brought forward and we hope that a reassessment will take place, because we still believe that the penalty was too mild for Hamilton.”
Marko says a just penalty would have “prevented” Hamilton from winning.
“A drive-through or a ban at the next race,” he said.
The Austrian also told f1-insider.com: “Everything is possible. Hamilton’s penalty could be tightened or he may even be completely acquitted.
“Our only concern is that the new findings are taken into account and that Max sees clearly that we are fully behind him,” Marko said.
Respected F1 correspondent Fulvio Solms, however, is not confident Red Bull will be successful.
“In our opinion, the chance is almost zero,” he told Italy’s Corriere dello Sport.
“Red Bull has already said what is up for debate. So the new evidence will be looked at from three points. Is it new? If so, is it significant? And if so, is it relevant?
“We have to note that the stewards at Silverstone used an enormous amount of information to make their decision – external video, on-board cameras, telemetry and GPS data,” Solms said.
“It’s hard to imagine they overlooked something so significant and relevant to the case. But we’ll see.”