Marko taunts Lauda over Mercedes driver decision

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Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has taunted Niki Lauda about the Mercedes driver decision, saying the team's junior program isn't working.

The two Austrians were appearing alongside each other during the Sport und Talk show on ServusTV at Hangar 7, with Lauda speaking about the interest in the seat vacated by Nico Rosberg.

“Every driver called, even [Pastor] Maldonado who took about four days to realise the story about Rosberg!” Lauda joked.

Having said it could take until the end of January for a decision to be made, Lauda highlighted Valtteri Bottas and Pascal Wehrlein as the two main candidates, leading Marko to wind up his compatriot.

"You have a junior program and you have the highly regarded Mr. Wehrlein," Marko said. "Wehrlein does not look like he will get the drive. That means you do not trust your own junior program.”

Lauda was quick to respond, saying: “I must correct that.

"The junior program is, as you say, a junior program. Young drivers should gain experience. Clearly, we can discuss whether Wehrlein is ready or not, but don’t forget that Max Verstappen first started out at Toro Rosso this year until the Russian [Daniil Kvyat] made a mistake and only then did you take him over to the senior team.”

Marko continued, highlighting how expensive it could prove for Mercedes to overlook Wehrlein at this stage, with the German likely to join Sauber if he doesn't replace Rosberg.

"Well, Wehrlein is still very young, but no risk, no fun," Marko said. "If you take Valtteri Bottas, you have to give a two-digit million amount in the form of a reduction in engine costs to Williams. OK, you have a budget of 22 million now that you are not paying Rosberg, but then you would have to buy Wehrlein a drive at a team that drives a competitor's engine."

Translation by Luis Fernando Ramos.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.