Marko’s regret over Mercedes tip off about Hamilton
The Red Bull motorsport advisor has revealed he passed on key information to old friend and then Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda that Hamilton could be poached from McLaren at the end of the 2012 season.
Three-time world champion Lauda held talks with Hamilton throughout the year and ultimately convinced the Briton to make the switch to Mercedes for the following season.
Marko said he made the suggestion to Lauda because he believed Hamilton would be “less of a threat to us at Mercedes”, but the 79-year-old Austrian has now conceded he made an error.
"I gave him [Lauda] some information that Lewis would be available,” Marko told Bild, via The Mirror.
"Of course I was not being altruistic. At the time, we thought Lewis would be less of a threat to us at Mercedes than at McLaren, for whom he was driving at the time.
"In retrospect, that was a complete misjudgement, although at the time it was really not foreseeable. But with the knowledge I have today, I would definitely not do that again.”
Following a sustained period of Red Bull success that culminated in a fourth consecutive world title for Sebastian Vettel, Mercedes would go on to dominate much of the V6 hybrid era which began in 2014.
Hamilton has won six of his seven world championships with Mercedes on his way to becoming F1's most decorated driver of all time.
Red Bull have since capitalised on a regulation reset to begin another spell of dominance, with Max Verstappen already well on course to win his third straight world title in 2023.
