Damon Hill drops 3-word reaction to Helmut Marko showering praise on Lando Norris for beating Oscar Piastri

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko recently came out and hailed Lando Norris for overcoming the gap to Oscar Piastri and winning the 2025 championship. Former F1 champion Damon Hill took to Instagram and dropped a reaction to Marko showering praise on Norris.

McLaren went into the 2025 season as the favorite, having a car far superior to the Red Bull, Mercedes, or Ferrari. Lando Norris was the favorite for the title going into the season, but his teammate Oscar Piastri posed a strong challenge.

With Oscar Piastri leading the title race for the majority of the season, and Norris making some crucial mistakes in the first half, including the crash at the Canadian GP, some raised their eyebrows, but the Briton silenced all of them with his second-half performance.

Helmut Marko came out and hailed Lando Norris for beating Oscar Piastri, as the Red Bull advisor said,

“Norris is a world champion worthy of the name. He was clearly behind Piastri in terms of points, but he recovered mentally and in the second half he played fantastic matches, clearly overshadowing his teammate.” "He therefore denied all the predictions that gave him mentally too weak, showing that this is not the case. He is a very high level driver, very strong even in qualifying. So, if he had the right car available again, history could repeat itself,” added Marko

1996 F1 champion Damon Hill took to Instagram, shared Helmut Marko’s quotes on his story posted via an account, and dropped a three-word reaction.

“Ah. That's nice,” was Damon Hill’s reaction

Image credits: Instagram/@96f1champ

Oscar Piastri took the lead of the championship six races into the season, and maintained it until the Mexico GP, the fifth-to-last race of the 2025 season. Norris retired at the Dutch GP after a mechanical failure and was over 30 points behind his teammate in the championship.

However, the Briton started to claw back the points but by bit, and a strong final third of the season, despite the threat from Max Verstappen, meant he became McLaren's most recent champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

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Juan Pablo Montoya details the possible reason behind Helmut Marko’s Red Bull exit

Helmut Marko hinted at a possible retirement after the Abu Dhabi GP and reportedly met with Red Bull senior management, including CEO Oliver Mintzlaff. Soon after the Abu Dhabi GP, Helmut Marko confirmed that he will be leaving the Milton Keynes-based outfit at the end of 2025.

Juan Pablo Montoya detailed how Red Bull GmbH wanted to take more control over the racing team, and how Marko's decision, which he had previously had the power to make, would now involve meetings. The former F1 driver added,

“He had full control of the drivers. He had full control of the decisions. And I think he realised now that anything he wants to do needs to be approved. He got to a point where he said to himself, ‘I’m not going to be anybody’s employee.’ It’s really hard when you have had autonomy and then you lose all that. Everybody’s going to question everything.”

Sebastian Vettel's race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin, better known as Rocky, has been reported as Helmut Marko's replacement.

Edited by Pranay Bhagi