“Valtteri did a great job”– Christian Horner feels Valtteri Bottas Spa penalty is incomplete punishment

Tanish Chachra | 02/08/2021
"Valtteri did a great job"– Christian Horner feels Valtteri Bottas Spa penalty is incomplete punishment

“Valtteri did a great job”– Christian Horner wants more out of the penalty given to Valtteri Bottas for Spa after the carnage in Hungary.

Valtteri Bottas gave massive chaos at turn 1 of the very first lap of the race in Hungary, and it severely damaged both Red Bull cars; Sergio Perez had to immediately leave the race, while Max Verstappen continued but lost a huge amount of pace.

In return, Bottas received a five grid position penalty for the race in Spa at the end of this month, but for Christian Horner, this penalty is pointless and incomplete.

“Great strategy from Mercedes,” Horner told Auto Bild. “Valtteri did a great job for them by knocking out both of our cars. Valtteri gets the penalty for the next race, but he makes up for that in two laps at Spa,” he said. “It’s not a real punishment.”

Cost and new PU concerns

Horner has a new bill to deal with after the crash, as Verstappen’s crash in Silverstone cost Red Bull around $1.8 million, and now Perez’s car also would need an expensive repair.

“It [the grid penalty] doesn’t repair the damage he did to us,” Horner continued, “especially when you look at the budget cap. The effects are immense, the costs are brutal.”

He also talked about Perez need to have a new power unit for Belgium, as the crash has severely damaged his previous engine, which is now nearing both the Red Bull drivers close to a grid penalty for it.

“The first impressions indicate that Perez’s engine is no longer operational either,” Horner said. “It’s very frustrating, also for Honda, because it doesn’t come from reliability, but from accidents that we did not cause.”

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Christian Horner Mercedes Red Bull Valtteri Bottas

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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