Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has accused Lewis Hamilton of damaging Alex Albon’s confidence “massively” with their two high-profile crashes, which ultimately led to Albon’s departure from the team.
Albon, who now races for Williams, was Max Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull before being demoted in 2021.
On two separate occasions, Albon came close to achieving his first-ever podium finish, only to be denied by Hamilton.
In Brazil four years ago, Hamilton collided with Albon, causing the Red Bull driver to finish in 14th place.
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A year later in Austria, another collision between the two drivers, where Hamilton was labelled a “sore loser” by Albon, cost the Red Bull driver a shot at victory.
Marko directly pointed fingers at Hamilton for shattering Albon’s confidence at a crucial time when he was under immense pressure to secure podium finishes for Red Bull.
In an interview with the Inside Line F1 podcast, Marko stated: “He was turned around by Hamilton, and that hit his confidence massively.
“A P2 and a win were on the table.”
This is not the first time Marko has criticised the 37-year-old Hamilton for his collisions with Albon.
In an interview with Motorsport-Total.com, Marko said: “Turn 4 is famous.
“That’s where I think Hamilton destroyed Albon’s career.
“If Hamilton hadn’t sent him out there in 2020, Albon would have won the race.
“Then maybe everything would have been completely different because the psyche and self-confidence naturally develop differently.”
While Albon refrained from blaming Hamilton directly, he did admit that better results in those races could have had a positive impact on his mindset and potentially secured his future with Red Bull.
Speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast last year, Albon shared: “I do remember in one of the races, I was getting bashed like ‘where’s your performance?’ and I was like ‘Hold on a minute, it wasn’t even that bad, everyone chill out a bit.’
“I think a result would have quietened everything down.
“I would have had the next six, seven races with a bit less of that noise because the noise started from the very first race of the year; it was quite intense.”
Albon also took responsibility for the crashes, stating: “I would never, never blame Lewis for what’s happened to me.
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“It’s all on me. It’s just one of those things.
“He apologised, and honestly, I look at the Brazil one and think I could have done my part in avoiding a crash in some places.
“I always look at crashes between drivers, and it’s never 100-0; there’s always a little bit of give and take in most of these incidents.”