Red Bull will not contest Verstappen penalties with FIA – Horner

Christian Horner has confirmed Red Bull will not pursue a right of review petition for the two penalties Max Verstappen incurred during the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The Dutch driver was handed a pair of 10-second time penalties by the stewards at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which he served during his sole pit stop of the race.

The officials found him to be at fault both times when he clashed with Lando Norris at Turn 4 and Turn 7 on the tenth lap of 71.

Those incidents come just a week after the McLaren driver had five seconds added to his overall race time at the United States Grand Prix for overtaking Verstappen off-track.

That decision dropped Norris back behind the Red Bull, costing him a podium finish and resulting in a six-point swing in the F1 drivers’ championship.

It brought the subject of racing guidelines and driving standards into sharp focus ahead of the weekend in Mexico, where McLaren unsuccessfully petitioned to have Norris’ penalty reviewed.

After the race, Horner explained Red Bull would not challenge the outcome of Verstappen’s penalties, whilst zeroing in on what he feels is the more important issue.

“We won’t activate the right or review on this,” the 50-year-old announced to media including RacingNews365.

“The most important thing to address is: what is the way to go racing going forward?

“I’m not sure that it’s clear to the drivers, or certain aspects of it, that you’ve just got to have your nose ahead at the apex point, which means you’re going to do this: you’re going to come off the brakes and carry speed to get to that point to say: ‘I’m ahead of that at that point in time’, even though you wouldn’t have made the pass.”

Horner defends Turn 4 penalty

Having served his punishment and working his way back through the pack, Verstappen finished in sixth, with his title lead being cut to 47 points by virtue of Norris crossing the line in second.

The penalties changed the face of the race, and on pace alone Verstappen likely would have come home in fourth, ahead of the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Despite not appealing against the added time, Horner was quick to defend his driver, arguing that at least the first penalty was not comparable to the incident that happened at the Circuit of the Americas.

“It’s slightly different, because both of them went off the track last week, and you can’t gain an advantage by passing off track,” he explained when it was put him that Verstappen was guilty of the very thing Horner had identified as needing to be addressed.

“This is different, because Max actually hasn’t gone off the track. He stayed within the perimeter.

“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 important that the rules of engagement are fair, rather than giving an advantage to the outside line.

“In the history of motorsport, being on the outside has always been the more risky place to be, but now it’s almost the advantage, because all you got to do is have your nose ahead at the point they turn in, irrelevant of whether you’re going to make the corner or not.”