Christian Horner claims his team never complains like Mercedes when other drivers touch upon their car. Max Verstappen was just inquisitive.
Max Verstappen breached a Parc Ferme rule by allegedly touching Lewis Hamilton car’s rear wings. For that, the Dutchman was summoned by the stewards on Saturday morning only to be fined €50,000.
This act by Verstappen, though, gave license to Mercedes to blame Verstappen for allegedly damaging the wings. Whereas the Silver Arrows were under investigation for an alleged technical DRS infringement.
This breach disqualifies Hamilton from qualifying and obligates him to start the sprint race from the back of the grid. The two incidents are classified separately, but Red Bull chief Helmut Marko revealed that Mercedes is trying to combine the two incidents by accusing Verstappen of damaging the wings.
However, Christian Horner comes to defend his race driver. The Red Bull team principal claims that his cars are constantly peeked at by other drivers giving unwarranted damages, yet they never speak against it.
“Max was being inquisitive. We’ve had drivers pull our clutch paddles, tyres pushed, heads in cockpits. It’s never been brought up previously,” said Horner.
Christian Horner is right
Drivers are regularly seen enquiring about their rivals’ cars. Hamilton himself, on several occasions, looked at other cars, be it Ferrari or Red Bull.
Meanwhile, the famous tag to Sebastian Vettel of “Inspector Seb” is potentially in danger with this precedent. The German has a habit of looking at other cars under curiosity.
He even looked at Haas this season while accompanying his compatriot Mick Schumacher, who competes for the American team. So, it’s nothing new in F1.
So, the big question is whether Mercedes tried to obtain from this complaint. If there was anything, they have just failed, with Verstappen not having to serve any grid penalties with the latest development.
Also read: Red Bull brings up debate over Mercedes’ “flexible wing” advantage at the Sao Paolo Grand Prix
