Christian Horner has drawn a line under the Verstappen/Hamilton affair
After the rejection of Red Bull's appeal regarding the penalty imposed on Lewis Hamilton following the accident with Max Verstappen, Christian Horner stated that he had closed the case.
On Thursday, Red Bull and Mercedes were summoned before the stewards following an appeal from the Austrian team regarding the penalty imposed on Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone. Despite the presentation of new evidence, the FIA was not convinced by what Red Bull brought forward and did not impose a harsher penalty on the British driver.
While the case is now closed, Mercedes released a statement after the decision, stating that they were satisfied with what was announced and that these actions were carried out in order to tarnish Lewis Hamilton’s image.
On his side, the director of Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner, said during the team bosses’ press conference that he wanted to draw a line under this story.
« Obviously, there is the right of examination that we have used because we felt that after examining the accident data and its severity, there were some data that were not available at the time when the stewards made their decision. », says Christian Horner.
We presented this data to the stewards. Yesterday, they gave us permission to have a fair hearing where we were told about this data, the positioning of the cars, their speed, the fact that Lewis should have braked 23 meters earlier, and the fact that Max was on the same identical trajectory as Charles Leclerc (at the end of the race) and that the result with Charles would have been the same if Lewis had adopted the same approach.
« The commissioners considered that there was no new evidence within the limits of the regulations and therefore it was not opened to another hearing, so we accept it. »
« This competition is a matter of marginal gains and we are leaving no stone unturned. And of course, when you have an accident at this speed and impact, then of course, you will conduct a thorough investigation.
But as far as we are concerned, the chapter is closed now, the sports commissioners have made their decision and we now focus entirely on this weekend and the rest of the championship.
With this accident, Max Verstappen saw his lead in the championship significantly reduced and now has only an 8-point lead over Lewis Hamilton. In the constructors’ standings, Red Bull sees Mercedes becoming increasingly closer in its rear-view mirrors and now has only a 4-point lead.
