Concerning my remark about Sergio Perez, ServusTV Sport and Talk, Monday September 4: I would like to apologise for my offensive remark and want to make it absolutely clear that I do not believe that we can generalise about the people from any country, any race, any ethnicity. I was trying to make a point that Checo has fluctuated in his performance this year, but it was wrong to attribute this to his cultural heritage.

This is reportedly not the first time that Helmut Marko has incorrectly said that Checo is from South America. But the thing is Sergio Pérez was born in Guadalajara, which is the capital of Jalisco, one of Mexico’s more readily recognized states.

The Austrian website www.oe24.at reported him as saying: “It wasn’t meant that way. I meant that a Mexican has a different mentality than a German or a Dutchman. But who knows, maybe it’s controlled.”

Perez and Verstappen shared two wins each in the first four races of the season, after which Perez was talking about challenging for the world title.

Not only did Marko have the gall to blame Checo’s performance on being Mexican, but he was confidently incorrect when describing the F1 driver’s origin, implying the Mexican pilot is from South America, which is, uh, wrong.