Max Verstappen heads into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend as the championship leader. Despite being level on points with title rival Lewis Hamilton, the Red Bull ace leads the defending champion because of winning more races. Red Bull team advisor Dr. Helmut Marko states that there is a negative campaign against the Dutch driver.

Verstappen got a lot of criticism for his driving standards at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver was over-aggressive in his defense against Lewis Hamilton in the race. But Marko defended his young driver and hinted that there is a campaign against him in the 2021 season.

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Helmut Marko says that there is a campaign against Max Verstappen

As reported by Formula Passion, the Austrian mentioned Verstappen is relaxed heading into the title decider in Abu Dhabi. Marko stated that he and the team have given Max valuable advice and he is following it.

“Max’s mood? I think he is relatively relaxed. But obviously, there is all this pressure that is put on him. They make him pass for a bad, aggressive driver and that’s not true. We told him not to read the press, not to look at social media. 

He is doing it, focusing only on his work and, as seen in this session, he is already bringing home the results. It seems to us that there is a campaign underway against him.” said Marko.

The Red Bull advisor mentioned what Verstappen needs to do to win the championship in Abu Dhabi.

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“We have seen that in the last few races Mercedes have had a better car, while we have not made the best of ours. Here we just need a smooth and clean weekend. We can certainly win. ,” said the Austrian.

Hopefully, the Dutchman can prove the critics wrong by winning the championship at the end of a clean race.

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