Christian Horner backs Sergio Perez for the radio frustrations in F1 Abu Dhabi GP, as he feels stewards with racing experience should understand more.
Not only Red Bull’s Perez dropped to fourth at the end of F1 Abu Dhabi GP, the Mexican was called up by the stewards for insulting them on radio post the grand prix. They noted that disagreement with penalties is fine, but personal insults aren’t.
Perez called the stewards as a ‘joke’ and people ‘who are not of Formula 1 level’. The Mexican duly apologised in the stewards meet where he was formally warned. The stewards noted that the Red Bull driver has been respectful all-through until the radio moment.
This did help in limiting the penalty to a warning. Perez was handed a five seconds penalty for a collision with McLaren’s Lando Norris and it did cost him a podium finish. Red Bull team boss Horner backed the Mexican and his venting of frustrations.
Although he reckoned Perez was unlucky that his vent was broadcasted. Interestingly, it wasn’t broadcasted on the world feed but it was available on F1 TV’s onboard. Horner agreed that there is scope of improvement on how FIA handles these things.
He felt that a driver steward should understand how it is with drivers on the radio. “Sergio was just voicing his frustration,” said Horner to media. “The problem is that if you’re a football player and you have a rant, you haven’t got a microphone on your shirt. Whereas you can understand his frustration that he’s lost a podium.
“He drove a great race, so he’s had a vent. But unfortunately, that vent was broadcasted. He was questioning the decision, shall we say. As I said, you have to take into account that this is a racing driver who has just had a podium taken off him and I think it does need to be take into account that the driver steward that was in Abu Dhabi is well known to have had a few rants in his day when he used to drive for me many years ago.
“It happens. He was just fortunate that it wasn’t broadcast. For the FIA, like any business or any team, there is always room for improvement in everything involved,” summed up Horner. The Red Bull chief was pointing towards Vitantonio Liuzzi, who raced for the Brit at Red Bull and also for the sister outfit Toro Rosso.
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