{"id":17537,"date":"2013-01-09T07:01:38","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T12:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=17537"},"modified":"2013-01-09T07:01:38","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T12:01:38","slug":"alonso-responds-to-markos-jibes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/alonso-responds-to-markos-jibes\/","title":{"rendered":"Alonso responds to Marko&#8217;s jibes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fernando Alonso has this week responded quickly to Red Bull&#8217;s ever-outspoken Dr Helmut Marko.<\/p>\n<p>Marko, the energy drink company&#8217;s motor racing chief, gave an interview to Red Bull&#8217;s in-house Red Bulletin magazine contrasting world champion Sebastian Vettel&#8217;s intense focus with Spaniard Alonso, the 2012 runner-up who drives for Ferrari.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-left alignright\" style=\"margin: 5px 10px;\" alt=\"Fernando-Alonso\" src=\"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/gallery\/f1-2012-rif-images\/f1-12-drivers\/Fernando-Alonso.jpg\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\" \/>Marko said Alonso is caught up in &#8220;politics&#8221;, &#8220;funny comments&#8221; and &#8220;psychological skirmishes&#8221;, showing he feels the &#8220;stress&#8221; of the title battle.<\/p>\n<p>Alonso interpreted the jibes as an acknowledgement by Red Bull that Ferrari will again be the main contender this year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I enjoy reading that Red Bull still think we will be the strongest rival for next year!&#8221; he wrote on Twitter.\u00a0 &#8220;And this even before start testing!!<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Flattered ;)&#8221; Alonso quipped.<\/p>\n<p>Alonso, however, was not the only driver in Marko&#8217;s sights.\u00a0 He also reserved some critique for Vettel&#8217;s continuing teammate Mark Webber, who according to speculation may be replaced after the Australian&#8217;s latest one-year contract expires.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It seems to me that Webber has on average two races per year where he is unbeatable, but he can&#8217;t maintain this form throughout the year,&#8221; Reuters quotes Marko as having told the Red Bulletin.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As soon as his prospects start to look good in the world championship, he has a little trouble with the pressure that this creates.\u00a0 In comparison with Seb&#8217;s rising form, it seems to me that Mark&#8217;s form somehow flattens out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fernando Alonso has this week responded quickly to Red Bull&#8217;s ever-outspoken Dr Helmut Marko. Marko, the energy drink company&#8217;s motor racing chief, gave an interview to Red Bull&#8217;s in-house Red Bulletin magazine contrasting world champion Sebastian Vettel&#8217;s intense focus with Spaniard Alonso, the 2012 runner-up who drives for Ferrari. Marko said Alonso is caught up &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[1628,5262,149,93,5340],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17537"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17538,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17537\/revisions\/17538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}