Horner points to rules of engagement: 'It would have been a win'

22:55, 20 Apr

Updated: 23:13, 20 Apr

byNorberto Mujica

Max Verstappen was handed a five-second penalty for his incident with Oscar Piastri, something Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner found extremely harsh.

On the run up to Turn 1, at the start of the race, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri were side by side with the Dutchman on the outside. As they came out of the corner, Verstappen took to the run off, after Piastri made his car as wide as possible on the exit of the corner, and Verstappen managed to keep the position out of Turn 2.

The Stewards decided to award the Dutchman with a 5 second penalty. “I thought it was very harsh," said Horner to media present at Jeddah including GPblog.

The Austrian team could have instructed Verstappen to give the position back to Piastri. Horner explains why they didn't. "We didn't concede the position because we didn't believe that he'd done anything wrong. You can quite clearly see at the apex of the corner, we believe that Max is clearly ahead."

"The rules of engagement they've discussed previously… It was a very harsh decision. If we'd have given it up, the problem is you'd then obviously run in the dirty air as well. You'd have dropped back behind."

Horner then clarified the problem behind the decision. "You then are at risk with George, so the best thing to do is to, at that point, we got the penalty, get your head down, keep going."

"I think what was a great shame today was that you can see our pace versus, certainly, the McLarens or all other cars in that first stint on the medium. We were in good shape."

"We had to serve the five-second penalty. And thereafter, on the same basic stint as Oscar, he finished, what, 2.6 seconds behind. So without that five-second penalty today, it would have been a win."

"There's always going to be a difference of opinion over a very marginal decision like that,” Horner conceeded.

Horner thinks FIA rules required Verstappen to 'dissapear'

In 2024 the rules of engagement were under the microscope throughout the season, and where it seemed to have been sorted in the home strecth of last season, it seems, with the Piastri-Verstappen incident, this could not be further from the truth.

“I can't see how they got to that conclusion. They've both gone in at the same speed. Oscar's run deep into the corner. Max can't just disappear at this point in time."

"So perhaps these rules need a re-lookout. I don't know what happened to let them race on the first lap. That just seemed to have been abandoned."

Will Red Bull dispute the Stewards' decision?

Horner then stated that Red Bull had indeed spoken to the race officials, but fears the recourse will be unfruitful. “Everything has to be objectively looked at in isolation and that's a really marginal call."

"Obviously, we spoke to them [the Stewards] after the race. They think it was a slam dunk. So the problem is, if we're to protest it, then they're going to most likely hold their line. We'll ask them to have a look at the onboard footage that wasn't available at the time. But yeah, I think that's what it is.”