F1 Gossip: Red Bull has €3 million in damages due to Mercedes - Marko

- Helmut Marko has revealed Red Bull’s repair bill adds up to three million euros due to incidents at the British and Hungarian Grands Prix.

In an interview with Motorsport-Magazin, Marko said: “Until the last two races, the first half of the season was positive, “Then everything came together in a negative way.

“As a result, we have to ask ourselves whether the penalty system is justified after two errors by Mercedes. Maybe there should be different standards.

“Antonio Giovinazzi gets a stop/go penalty after speeding in the pit lane and Sebastian Vettel is disqualified for not having enough fuel in his tank, while the 0.3-litres that was in his tank would have been enough for control.

“On the other hand, we have two broken engines due to the Mercedes drivers and that means that we have to take a hard hit financially. We have three million damages and that's an amount we can't easily find anymore.”

- Daniel Ricciardo says the culture at Red Bull contributed to his decision to leave the team at the end of 2018.

In an interview on the Optus YouTube channel, he explained: “I was kind of concerned with the culture, but also what my place in the culture looked like moving forward. I felt like I was going to become slightly more frustrated, probably more complacent, [where] everything is just a little bit too easy.

“So it plays a big role, absolutely.”

- Valtteri Bottas on why F1, unlike cycling, doesn’t need additional practice outside grand prix weekends.

“Simulators have evolved quite a bit in recent years, too,” Bottas said in an interview with Velo. “But, once you’ve been in the sport for quite some time, I feel that you don’t need extra practice because we’re racing so much. Every race we have Friday practice sessions. It’s actually quite a lot of driving.”

- Zak Brown says McLaren is in no rush to get its first title sponsor since 2013. (Motorsport Week)

- The 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is expected to take place in March, while Miami’s inaugural GP will be in May. (La Gazzetta dello Sport)