Horner: We don’t want the equivalent of football players who dive
Christian Horner is concerned about a change in behavior of the drivers towards the penalties that were notably given this weekend in Austria.
The Austrian Grand Prix sparked a lot of controversy after the numerous penalties that the race direction handed out to the drivers. Among all the on-track incidents, the battles between Sergio Perez and Lando Norris, as well as those between Charles Leclerc and Checo Perez, are the ones that have generated the most discussion.
In the early laps of the race, Lando Norris sent the Mexican driver into the gravel after defending his position at turn 4. At mid-race, Sergio Perez did the same with Charles Leclerc, before pushing the Monegasque wide at turn 6 a few laps later.
Lando Norris was penalized 5 seconds for forcing a driver off the track. With such a decision, race stewards had to and did the same for similar maneuvers by Perez on the Ferrari driver.
According to Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner, the McLaren driver should not have been penalized for sending his competitor into the gravel trap. The Briton is concerned that in the future, drivers will purposely drive wide in a corner to be pushed off the track by a rival in order to incur a penalty.
« We do not want the equivalent of footballers who dive. We must avoid that. I know it’s incredibly difficult because we talk about it very often, and it’s difficult for the race director. But I had the feeling that the incidents we saw could have been more related to racing incidents than incidents deserving penalties,” he says.
« The incident between Checo (Perez) and Lando is part of racing. When you go on the outside, you take the risk, especially when you are not in a position to be in front. But I believe that the FIA, after giving this penalty, could not avoid giving one for something very similar with Charles. These drivers raced in karting when they were kids and they know that if you go on the outside, you take a risk, especially if you are not in the lead. So yes, I think the penalties were a bit harsh and they somehow go against the ‘Let them race’ doctrine that we have defended in recent years. »
Knowing Christian Horner’s political instinct, one can also think that his thinking is also dictated by the fact that he would have ultimately preferred Lando Norris not to be penalized, which would certainly have allowed the Briton to overtake Valtteri Bottas and thus cause his Mercedes rivals to lose points…
