Christian Horner calls for Monaco Grand Prix review despite Red Bull winning race

F1 preview: A lap of the Monaco Grand Prix

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Christian Horner has called for the FIA to review the ‘chaotic’ decisions made at the Monaco Grand Prix, despite his Red Bull team coming out on top. Sergio Perez crossed the chequered flag first with Max Verstappen coming third. The FIA decided to delay the start of the race by several minutes as it watched a band of heavy rain approach the circuit.

The cars eventually started a formation lap around 15 minutes late but this was stopped moments later as the rain worsened. It took another 45 minutes for the weather to clear with the race eventually starting an hour late.

However, the Red Bull boss has stressed the FIA’s call to guess the weather was a ‘little dangerous’. Instead, he claims it would have been safer for F1 to have started the race on time and allowed teams to naturally react to the conditions.

Horner said: “I think that needs a bit of a review because it was a little chaotic, with tyres coming on the grid, off the grid. It’s a busy enough grid here, and it’s always a little dangerous to try and pre-empt the weather.

“You can argue it both ways. You could say we would have been better starting the race and then reacting to the downpour, and either putting the safety car out or stopping the race, but I think it needs a bit of a review after this weekend.”

The FIA claims the decision to delay the start was made purely on safety grounds as there had been no previous wet running on the track across the whole weekend. The governing body said: “Race control was monitoring a downpour that was rapidly approaching the circuit, and as it arrived during the start procedure, the safety car start and associated procedures were implemented.

“This was done for safety reasons in consideration that there has been no wet running this weekend.” However, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton has also demanded talks with the FIA over the confusion at the start.

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He claims the race should have been started on time as it was only ‘drizzling’. The Mercedes man explained: “I don’t know the reason for them not sending us out at the get-go — but we are Formula 1 drivers so (the weather) is not a good enough reason.

“That is what I was saying. I was like ‘let’s go’ when it was just drizzling a little bit at the beginning. We will talk about it in the drivers’ briefing but we should have started the race.”

However, there was some sympathy in the paddock for race director Edurado Freitas’ decision to postpone the start. McLaren boss Andreas Seidl said: “I would say in the end it was the right thing to do, what the race director has decided.

“I think there was absolutely no need to start the race knowing how the weather forecast was and to rush it, because there’s simply no point ending up in taking a risk ending up in a lot of crashes, especially at this track.”

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