Christian Horner blames AlphaTauri for Max Verstappen escaping Singapore GP penalty
Christian Horner has denied any theory of Red Bull's involvement in getting the FIA to not give a three-grid-place penalty to Max Verstappen for his Singapore GP impeding incident.
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Christian Horner
The Singapore GP brought with it some great moments of excitements and intriguing drama too. While almost everyone rejoiced the end of Red Bull’s boring winning streak, others hailed Carlos Sainz for his masterful drive. But then there were some fans who refused to let go of the fact that Max Verstappen walked away with just a slap on the wrist for impeding Yuki Tsunoda thrice on the track. This is an offence for which there was a standard punishment of three-grid place penalty. But in Max’s case, his result remained unaltered as the reigning World Champion was not penalized.
The news revolving around there being no penalty for Max Verstappen reached several F1 personnel too. Martin Brundle said it was a sporting disappointment since there is a possibility that Red Bull’s influence might have worked to save their racer from the penalty. The controversies worsened since Max, a Red Bull driver, impeded Yuki, an AlphaTauri driver. As AlphaTauri is a sister team of Red Bull’s, they were perhaps coerced not to send a representative to the FIA hearing where Verstappen’s penalty would have been discussed.
Since AlphaTauri never sent a rep from their team, Max’s penalty was cancelled. This has led to widespread disdain about Red Bull using unfair means to escape punishment. But Christian Horner has now cleared the air about it. WhenSkySports asked if there was any coercion at play from Red Bull’s side, Horner said, “Absolutely none at all. It’s purely AlphaTauri’s choice, I don’t think a team representative was requested and we only found out there wasn’t going to be one actually in the meeting.”
Christian Horner denies Red Bull being responsible for Max Verstappen escaping Singapore GP penalty
Christian Horner remained adamant throughout his interview regarding Max Verstappen’s penalty. He said there was no use of unfair means by Red Bull, and it was all up to the FIA stewards. While Max Verstappen did not receive any penalty apart from a formal reprimand, his team had to pay up for the error on the track. Red Bull was charged a €5000 fine. Citing this, Horner claimed the FIA knew it was the team’s fault for not relaying information to Max on time, so they got the team to pay up.
Christian Horner said, “I think that the stewards’ decisions are the stewards’ decisions, they listen to the facts, they listen to the drivers, the circumstances surrounding that. They obviously chose a penalty to penalise the team for not giving Max the necessary information. There was certainly no pressure on our side and we weren’t sure what to expect.”
That being said, the Singapore GP did not turn out the way Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez had wished it to. They both got out of Qualifying in Q2 and could not get a podium finish for their team. But they have now vowed to focus on the Japanese GP that is due next Sunday. It remains to be seen whether the Singapore GP was a one-off incident for Red Bull’s unexpected weakness, or if it was the start to a new decline for the team.
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