Red Bull boss Christian Horner suggested the “very harsh” double penalty dished out to Max Verstappen for his battles with Lando Norris in the Mexico City Grand Prix was a direct reaction to the controversy between the pair seven days earlier in the USA.
Verstappen saw his title lead over Norris cut to 47 points with four race weekends remaining this season after finishing only sixth in Sunday’s race, four places behind his McLaren rival, after being handed a combined 20-second penalty for two separate incidents when going wheel-to-wheel with the Briton on the race’s 10th lap.
The incidents came a week after the pair’s contentious battle in Austin, where Norris lost third place to Verstappen after being penalised for an overtake that stewards there ruled as illegal and which raised a debate about F1’s overtaking guidelines that had rumbled all the way through this week’s event.
Reacting to the stewards’ decisions on Sunday evening in Mexico after a frustrating race for his team that saw them slip to third in the Constructors’ Championship, Horner said: “First of all, I think it was very harsh to give two 10-second penalties.
“I think there’s something more fundamental.
“There’s been a reaction to last weekend. I think it’s very important for the stewards and the drivers to sit down.”
Horner, who said Red Bull would not seek a right of review challenge into the penalties as McLaren did with Norris’ Austin sanction, added: “They just need to go back to basics. If you are on the outside you don’t have priority.
“Otherwise you will end up in a mess in these last four races. It’s important the stewards and drivers agree something that’s sensible because there’s an inconsistency.”
After the controversy of Austin, F1’s drivers discussed the sport’s overtaking guidelines during their Friday night briefing with the FIA in Mexico and agreed that tweaks to the wording of the document were required.
Updated guidelines are expected to arrive in time for the Qatar Grand Prix on December 1, the season’s penultimate event.
Horner added to Sky Sports F1: “The problem is, I think we’re going to get into very dangerous territory of, at what point is a dive bomb going to be OK?”
‘He would not have made the corner’ – Horner’s uses Norris data to make Max defence
Speaking in his post-race briefing with the written media in Red Bull’s hospitality unit, Horner took particular issue with Verstappen’s first 10-second penalty which stewards said was because the Dutchman had forced Norris off the track at Turn Four.
The Red Bull team principal used print-outs of telemetry traces from that corner comparing how the Briton’s approach to the corner on that lap compared with his fastest of the race and suggested the McLaren would not have stayed on the track himself on lap 10 with the speed he was carrying.
“On the run down to Turn Four, on the GPS you can see that compared to Lando’s fastest lap of the Grand Prix into that corner, on the lap he had the incident with Max, he was 15kmph faster and later on the brakes,” suggested Horner.
“He would not have made the corner and he would have gone off track. You can see from the steering. At this point in the grand prix, he probably had 80kg more fuel than at the point he did his fastest lap.
“It used to be a reward for the bravest to go around the outside but we are in danger of flipping the overtaking laws upside down when drivers will just try to get their nose ahead at the apex, then claim they haven’t been given room on the exit.
“He’s effectively come off the brakes, gone in super late to try and win that argument as far as these regulations are written.
“At that point, you’re penalised. Every karting circuit around the world, if you have the inside line, you control the corner. It’s one of the principle physics of racing.”
On the second incident at Turn Seven, the Red Bull boss did concede he could understand why a penalty was imposed on his driver, although argued the incident was an “escalation” of what had unfolded three corners before.
“I think the (Turn Seven) incident is different. Max was expecting Lando to give up the place,” added Horner.
“He’s gone up the inside there and they have both run wide. Arguably, I can understand effectively forcing a car wide there why there would be a penalty applicable to that.
“That was the frustration of Lando potentially not giving back the place from the Turn Four incident. These things only escalate.”
Verstappen: Biggest problem is Red Bull’s lack of pace
Somewhat uncharacteristically for one of F1’s most straight-talking figures, Verstappen largely kept his counsel as to what he really thought of the penalties both during and after the race.
The Dutchman did describe the verdicts as “silly” on Red Bull team radio during the race, but mostly focused afterwards on what he considered to be his and the team’s bigger concern.
“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 to Sky Sports F1.
“At the end of the day it’s also not about agreeing or disagreeing with the penalties – the only thing is 20 seconds is quite a lot – but the biggest problem of today and also what I worry about is the race pace. It was really not good and is something we need to analyse. Even without those penalties, we had no chance at all to fight at the front.”
Verstappen has now gone 10 races without a grand prix win in a run that has brought Norris back into still-relatively-distant championship contention, but the reigning champion stressed: “I’m not worried (about the title).
“This was a really bad race for us but I also know we can do much better than this so we’ll just keep going at it.”
Formula 1’s Americas triple header concludes this weekend with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, with every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime
