Marko severely criticised by team bosses as Horner addresses comments

Christian Horner has addressed Helmut Marko's recent comments about Sergio Perez as fellow team bosses criticised the Red Bull Motorsport Advisor.

Marko was forced to apologise for comments suggesting that Perez's 'South American' mindset was why he was unable to maintain form when compared to Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, who are German and Dutch, respectively, while ignoring the fact that Mexico is in North America.

Perez revealed that he had received a personal apology from Marko over the comments, as Horner explained why Red Bull Racing could not take action against Marko.

However, fellow team bosses Zak Brown, Guenther Steiner and Toto Wolff were left far from impressed by Marko's words.

Horner on Marko

"Firstly, those comments were not right and I think Helmut quickly realised that and apologised both publicly and directly to Sergio, and spoke directly with Sergio," Horner told Sky Sports F1.

"You are always learning in life, even at 80 years of age and I think inevitably lessons have learned.

"Checo is a massively popular member and important member of the team.

"We have a huge following around the world and we take that very seriously, and very responsibly and the fan following, we're very conscious of that.

"This is Sergio's 250th race, we want to focus on that, and from Helmut's perspective, he has apologised.

"He is not an employee of Red Bull Racing, so in terms of why we did not put out a statement, he is part of the Red Bull wider group, who issued that apology through Servus TV.

"Helmut is technically an employee directly, or consultant of the wider group. We've spoken about it and he regrets it.

"There is a code of conduct, a code of ethics and the sporting code. We've communicated with the FIA and FOM throughout the last week, so it is a matter for them."

Brown, Steiner and Wolff react

Fellow team boss Zak Brown, Guenther Steiner and Toto Wolff were also asked by media including RacingNews365 for their thoughts on Marko's actions.

"You have to be very careful what you say to anybody," Brown explained.

"It was not a great comment, I can understand why people were offended by it. I didn't hear it myself, I've only read it.

"You have to be very respectful of everyone and not make comments that can be viewed inappropriately."

Steiner believed that if Marko did not mean his comments "he shouldn't have said it", while Wolff felt the 'mindset' was not credible in F1.

"It is a topic that is not at all funny and it is not only what has been said, but it is the mindset that you can even come up with those things and it hasn't got any place in Formula 1," the Mercedes chief said.

"It should not have been said in the past, now and certainly not in the future.

"We all know we need more diversity in Formula 1, more inclusion with teams doing their best to create an environment where this is possible.

"Statements like this do not shine the light that Formula 1 deserves."