Red Bull’s Christian Horner takes fresh swipe at FIA over Mercedes Toto Wolff gesture

Lewis Hamilton goes undercover to inspire school children

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has demanded to know where the consistency is from the FIA after picking up an official warning for some of his comments during the Qatar Grand Prix weekend.

Horner was summoned to the steward after allegations that he had breached the International Sporting Code and damaged the reputation of the FIA and its officials moments after Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton crossed the line to cut Max Verstappen’s lead to eight points at the Losail International Circuit.

The Red Bull boss received an official warning for his remarks, after blaming a ‘rogue marshal’ for the fact Verstappen was hit with a five-place grid penalty for ignoring double waved yellow flags in qualifying.

Horner apologised for his comments, but questioned why Toto Wolff wasn’t penalised for losing his cool in Brazil.

The Mercedes boss was shown triumphantly gesturing towards the camera as Hamilton stormed to victory in Brazil after a penalty-hit weekend, which saw the seven-time world champion disqualified from qualifying.

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Wolff was also heard telling Hamilton to “f**k them all” across the team radio, with Hamilton responding, “This isn’t over yet.”

“Where is the consistency?” The previous weekend, [Mercedes] basically told the race director to go f— himself,” Horner told the Telegraph. “My comments felt insignificant by comparison.”

Wolff explained the comments were not directed at the regulations, but said that it’s “generally a mindset we have, that sometimes, when there is hardship, you need to build up resilience”.

Yet speaking out after his official warning in Qatar, Horner argues that the stewards only became aware of his ‘rogue marshal’ comments after a rival team pointed them out.

“We’re a racing team,” Horner added. “We don’t have huge departments of press and manipulators in the background.

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“So I’m fending off whatever is incoming. Whereas some teams operate in a very different manner.

“They’ll spend their time, you know, manipulating a message. The truth is [what he said] wasn’t a criticism of the marshal.

“It was an unfortunate set of circumstances [what happened in qualifying].

“And I don’t believe it was the intention of the race director for that to happen, but he didn’t have control of his marshals.

“I think perhaps my comments were used to become pointed at a marshal which wasn’t the intention. But you know, these things get spun around.

“They get turned and they get twisted.”

The battle between Red Bull and Mercedes continues this weekend at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with qualifying taking place at 5pm GMT on Saturday and the race getting underway the following day at 5.30pm.

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