The 80-year-old Austrian, a former racer who was a close friend of Red Bull's late owner Dietrich Mateschitz, issued a formal statement via the www.servustv.com website.

"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," he said.

"I was trying to make a point that Checo (Perez) has fluctuated in his performance this year, but it was wrong to attribute this to his cultural heritage."

Marko had made his remarks on the energy drink company's television station following last weekend's Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

"We know that he has problems in qualifying, he has fluctuations in form, he is South American and he is just not as completely focused in his head as Max (Verstappen) is or as Sebastian (Vettel)," he said then.

--Reuters--