Red Bull’s Christian Horner is against the FIA’s decision to no longer broadcast the radio messages between the teams and the race director.
Following the controversial Abu Dhabi GP, the FIA decided to no longer broadcast the radio messages and removed the race director Michael Masi from his position. While Red Bull boss Christian Horner agrees with other decisions, he is adamant about the radio messages.
In the heat of the title-deciding race of the 2021 season, there was a lot of back and forth conversation between the team bosses and the race director. These conversations were broadcasted live and fans all around the world heard them.
This heated up the situation even more than it was as the criticism from fans caught a lot under fire. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff had previously said that the messages should not be broadcasted.
On the other hand, Horner supports the broadcasting of messages. He believes that it is interesting for the public to hear what goes on between the pit wall and the race director.
He explained that he lobbied very hard for the radio messages to be broadcasted with the idea that everything would be out in the open.
Christian Horner did his job
Horner further explained that if he hears another team principal lobbying the referee in their favour, it is his job to defend his team.
“So when I heard it at Silverstone [in the wake of Hamilton and Verstappen colliding] I was quite surprised. And of course, in Abu Dhabi, it was my job and responsibility to push as hard for this team as possible. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t doing that,” he said.
Furthermore, he appreciated the steps taken by FIA to define who can talk to the race director. However, he thinks that it should still be out in the open.
“The fans and spectators have a right to hear what is being lobbied. It is a part of the sport,” he added.
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Lobbying of the race directors has been going on for years
The Red Bull boss said that the lobbying of race directors is nothing new, it has been going on for years. It includes the period when the late Charlie Whiting was the race director. But the viewers only became aware of it last year, when it started to go public.
Horner explained that Whiting never wanted that as he didn’t want to be the centre of a story. He didn’t want controversy in the public domain. But after Stefano Domenicali took the CEO position, he thought it would be a good idea.
