Cross talk between the FIA and Red Bull after the severe accident that put Verstappen out of the game after just completing one lap of the 52 stipulated at Silverstone, with a debatable sanction for both parties.
Silverstone has been the setting for one of the confrontations that sooner or later were going to comeThe two title contenders, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, battled a thousand times during the first lap of the race until, right after reaching Copse, the contest was resolved in one of the worst possible ways.
Without giving a centimeter of margin, Verstappen was about to draw the ninth turn of the British circuit, when Hamilton tried to sneak through the interior without taking his foot off the accelerator either. “At that corner, Hamilton was never even close to paralleling”, Christian Horner assured, really angry as soon as he made sure his ward was safe and sound.
“Any driver who has driven here knows that you don’t put a wheel on the inside in Copse, it was a huge accident. The curve was 100% of MaxAs far as I’m concerned it’s all the fault of Hamilton, who should never have been in that position. It could have been a huge accident, thank goodness he escaped unscathed. I hope you face it properly, “he continued.
In his remarks to British television, Horner cataloged Hamilton’s movement as “Desperate maneuver” and meaningless. “He couldn’t complete the overtaking in the first part of the lap, he was obviously prepared for it, and then he did something desperate putting a wheel inside, something that is not done. You know better than anyone that Copse is one of the fastest corners in the world, that has been dirty riding, “he added.
“It was a fairly light sanction, it will probably end on the podium”
“It was a fairly light penalty, it will probably end on the podium. The important thing is that Max is fine, but Hamilton should have been penalized with a Stop-and-Go, “concluded Horner. For its part, Toto Wolff urged Michael Masi to look at an email that I had just sent him with a diagram of the drivers’ positions, something that the race director refused to do during the course of the appointment.