Red Bull Racing’s team principal Christian Horner responded post-race in Mexico to the combined 20-second penalty which Max Verstappen received for incidents on Lap 10 of the Mexico City Grand Prix. The British team boss felt they were “very harsh” and went so far as bringing graphs to support his point. The man leading Red Bull also claimed the rules need to be tidied up so that everybody knows what is acceptable between now and the end of the season.
Horner was quick to say in Austin that McLaren was complaining a lot about various topics. However, in Mexico, the man steering the ship at Red Bull spoke in a way not dissimilar to the comments of Zak Brown last week with regard to his dissatisfaction for the penalty given to his driver.
Verstappen’s double penalty was the result of two incidents which followed in quick succession on lap 10 of Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix. The stewards ruled that the Dutchman had forced his closest rival in the championship, Lando Norris, off track at Turn Four and then was also deemed to have left the track and gained an advantage shortly after at Turn Eight.
In voicing his frustration at the first penalty, Horner went one step further than Brown had last weekend as he also presented telemetry comparing the quickest lap of Lando Norris alongside the data of the lap when he was battling Verstappen. Horner explained how it showed the British racer was entering Turn 4 on that occasion at a speed which was 15 kmph quicker than at other times and so would not have been able to make the corner without going off track.
Horner began his post-race press conference being asked as to whether two 10-second time penalties was too harsh for Verstappen.
“I think it was very harsh to give two 10-second penalties.” replied the 50-year-old in headline making remarks. “I think there’s something more fundamental, I mean obviously there’s been a reaction to last weekend and I think it’s very important for the driver, steward and the drivers to sit down because if I show you here on the GPS, this is on the rundown to Turn 4 of, this is actually Lando versus Lando and what you can see is that the orange line is Lando’s fastest lap of the Grand Prix, so the point that he’s braking for Turn 4 and then obviously executing the corner. What you can see is that on lap, whatever it was of the lap, I forget the lap, there’s been the incident with Max, he is 15 kilometres an hour faster and later on the brakes than his fastest lap of the Grand Prix.”
Horner went on to explain that Norris wouldn’t have made the corner as due to that speed he would have run off track. He also said that this was evident from the onboard footage of his steering and this coupled with the fact Norris must probably have 80 kilos more fuel – than at the point that he’s done his fastest lap – thereby making the car heavier and harder to slow down.
“I think we’re in danger of, it used to be a reward of the bravest to go around the outside, I think we’re in danger of flipping the overtaking laws upside down where drivers will just try to get their nose ahead at the apex and then claim that they have to be given room on the exit.” Horner said before continuing with remarks that could have been mistaken for Zak Brown’s from a week ago “You can see quite clearly he’s effectively come off the brakes, gone in super, super late to try and win that argument as far as the way these regulations are written and then at that point you’re penalised.”
Horner later expressed a desire for the rules to get back to basics seeing how every karter would feel that if you’ve got the inside line you control the corner – as it’s one of the principles in the physics of racing.
“If you’re on the outside you don’t have priority and otherwise we will end up with a mess over these last five races.” Horner stated. “So, I think it’s really important that the driver-steward together with the drivers agree something that is sensible rather than what we’re getting because again there’s an inconsistency…I just think we’re making it, maybe we’re over complicating things and when you have to revert to an instruction manual of an overtake, I mean the racing principles for years have been if you have the inside line you dictate the corner and I think I think the way the regulations have or the guidelines have evolved is encouraging a driver to have his nose ahead at apex irrelevant of whether you’re going to make the corner because you can quite clearly see on the overlay of those two laps that Lando has hung out there to get that advantage. So, it’s something that just needs to be, I think, tidied up so that we have – everybody knows what is acceptable – between now and the end of the season otherwise we’re going to end up in a mess at the upcoming races.”
With regard to the Turn 8 penalty, Horner appeared to have less complaint as he said: “I think the turn 8 incident is different. I think Max was expecting Lando to give up the pace. He’s obviously gone up the inside there and they’ve both run wide. Arguably, I can understand effectively forcing the car wide there. Why there would be a penalty applicable to that but I think that was a frustration of potentially Lando not giving back the place from this incident here.” Having said all this, he would confirm shortly after that Red Bull would not activate a right of review on any of these incidents.
Given that Horner is now in a similar position to that of Brown last week – being unhappy with a stewarding decision – it was posed that isn’t what Norris did in Mexico the same as what Verstappen did last week in Austin.
“It’s slightly different because obviously both of them went off the track last week and you can’t gain an advantage by passing off track. I think this is different because Max actually hasn’t gone off the track you know he stayed within the perimeter so I think it’s something that really does need to get tidied up moving forward because there’s great racing going on and I think it’s just important that the rules of engagement are fair rather than giving an advantage to the outside line which was always that in the history of motorsport being on the outside has always been the more risk place to be but now it’s almost the advantage because all you got to do is have your nose ahead at the point that it’s irrelevant of whether you’re going to make the corner or not.
“It’s frustrating in that you don’t want to have to consult a rule book on every single overtake or defence and all of these guys have grown up doing a lot of racing and understand the principles of that and I think it’s just important that we don’t over-regulate into a point where you encourage a behaviour that is not within the guidelines and principles of motor racing.” concluded Horner.
Meanwhile, Verstappen described the verdicts as “silly” on Red Bull team radio during the race and his post-race remarks showed that he is concerned by the team’s lack of pace: “The problem is, when you’re slower, you’re being put into those kind of positions. I’m not going to give up easily,” said Verstappen post-race in the media pen.”
Having come back through the field to P6 and benefited somewhat from Carlos Sainz taking a well-deserved victory, Norris was only able to cut the lead Verstappen holds over him to 47 points – with four race weekends of the season remaining. These incidents came obviously only a week after the pair came together in Austin. Following that controversial moment of the season, it had already been announced that that all the drivers had discussed the sport’s overtaking guidelines during their Friday night briefing with the FIA in Mexico – and from that, updated guidelines are expected to arrive in time for the Qatar Grand Prix.
Thanks to it being a triple-header period of the season, we don’t have to wait long to see the title rivals battle on track. However, a trip to Qatar is not next up on the calendar, instead it is the Brazilian Grand Prix which is less than a week away – then following that a trip to Las Vegas. With the expectation that no updated guidelines will have been released at that time, such uncertainty as to how moves will be rewarded or punished could very much be a driver’s gamble. Consideration having to be made as to whether they consider it worth coming out on top on track – if there is a chance they are in front of the stewards having done so.
Regardless of all of this, Horner’s comments, graphs and frustration cannot hide the simple fact that even without the penalties, Red Bull did not have the race pace to battle at the front and that must surely be the greater concern for the team.
