F1 News
Verstappen backed by Horner: 'It's unfair, all drivers go rant at times'
- Nicole Mulder
Max Verstappen took responsibility for his incident with Oscar Piastri immediately after Abu Dhabi GP, even as the Dutchman shared over the team radio during the race that he was not satisfied with the stewards. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner defended his driver at the Yas Marina Circuit.
On the incident itself, the verdict was clear, and Verstappen himself also apologised. "Max just talked about it in the briefing, he saw a gap, he went for it. I don't think Oscar saw him and that gap closed down. He tried to get as hard the kerb as he could but contact unfortunately was inevitable. After getting the penalty, we didn’t have the pace on the medium tyre today, that was for sure. That was just one of those things," Horner began in Abu Dhabi, to GPblog among others.
Horner stands up for Verstappen
Verstappen may have taken responsibility for the incident, but he disagreed with the stewards' penalty. The driver was given a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points as well. He had to serve that penalty in the pit lane, and the Dutchman voiced his displeasure over the radio: "Could we ask for 20 seconds? Stupid idiots!"
Asked about Verstappen's radio message, Horner said, "I'm sure in any sport that there will always be frustration from players or sports people in the heat of the moment. When you're delivered a message about a penalty like that, in other sports if footballers had microphones on, I'm sure there'd be a few choice words as well."
Horner at the time confronted Sebastian Vettel's comments on at the time race director Charlie Whiting in Mexico 2016. Back then, the team principal said that 'players should not openly criticise the referee'. "Circumstances change but drivers don't," the 51-year-old Briton answered.
"Sometimes I do feel that it's very unfair. We hear all drivers rant and rave. We hear team principals rant and rave occasionally as well. It is a little unfair sometimes. One of the benefits to this sport is the access that is given. You would never find a camera or microphone in a football or a rugby changing room or team room or team talk. Microphones in their face before they get on a grid, when they get out of a car. It's unique and sometimes not every message is necessarily needed to be broadcast," concluded the Red Bull team principal.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sárközi
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