Max Verstappen didn’t waste much time to apologise to Oscar Piastri after F1 Abu Dhabi GP incident, as Christian Horner weighs in on radio comments.
It was not the start either Red Bull’s Verstappen or McLaren’s Piastri wanted in F1 Abu Dhabi GP. The Dutchman went for a move which seemed on but wasn’t as he couldn’t avoid it in the end to spin the Australian around. He was handed a 10s time penalty, much to his disappointment.
Even though Verstappen readily apologised to Piastri after the race, he was not convinced with the penalty and didn’t wish to elaborate further. He joked about getting 20s or 30s penalty even, while joked of getting 12 penalty points and miss a race as a paternity leave.
He is on eight points at the end of 2024 season. Piastri, meanwhile, was not just hurt by the spin but he got a penalty as well for hitting the back of Franco Colapinto. He had to fight through to P10 but on overall scene, he was elated with McLaren securing the 2024 constructors’ title.
Red Bull chief Horner played down Verstappen’s radio comments of swearing on the stewards. He noted of frustration but when reminded about his own view of driver shouldn’t abuse referees, the Brit could only laugh and state that drivers don’t change and that he feels it is unfair sometimes indeed.
What happened –
Verstappen: “My launch was good and then I tried to grab the inside and I quickly realised, once I committed to it, that the gap was closing and I wanted to try and get out of it, because I didn’t want to naturally, of course, crash with Oscar. But unfortunately, we still clipped each other, but I already apologised to Oscar, it is not what you want to happen, and especially not with him. He’s a great guy but it happened, and it is a bit unfortunate. Honestly, I don’t want to talk about it. I’m just happy that the season is over. For me, the most important thing that I had to do is just apologise to Oscar.
“I went straight to him – we don’t need to compare to anything [else] – when he jumped out of the car, so immediately talked about it. Because I had nothing to gain, nothing to lose. I went for it. It didn’t work out. And especially also for him, that we both spun. It’s not nice. He’s a friend of mine, so I don’t want to have any weird feelings or whatever going into the break. I don’t do these things on purpose [to make it difficult for McLaren], that’s racing as well. It doesn’t only happen here. I mean, throughout the whole season then you can blame things. That’s how you win or lose championship.”
Piastri: “I think for me, there was no overlapping to the corner, I mean Max came and apologised and the penalty speaks for itself. It is what it is, just very-very happy for the whole team, that’s definitely the big thing. The start was pretty miserable, the first few laps. I think Turn 1 was, what it was and on the re-start, with Franco, I need to look at it back. I think I just mis-judged where everyone was going to brake, a lot of moves going on towards the braking zone, I just got it wrong.
“That set me up for a pretty tough race and tough evening.At that point I knew that I needed to try and get my way back through. I knew it will be tough but once I had a coming together with Colapinto, that was pretty much the nail in the coffin pretty much for my race. It was not the best way to end my season for myself but for the team, couldn’t have obviously been better.”
Horner: “I am sure, we raised their heart pressure at the start of the race. He saw a gap. He went through. I don’t think Oscar saw him, and that gap closed down. He tried to try to get as high up the kerb as he could, but contact, unfortunately, was inevitable. After getting the penalty, we didn’t have the pace on the medium tyre today, that was for sure. That was just one of those things.”
Stella: “The first thought I had after checking corner one is that it felt unnecessary. When you have teams fighting for the championship, it’s the pinnacle, it’s the time to harvest the efforts of a season. That felt a little unnecessary, but sometimes adversities give you the opportunity to show your strengths. I think that’s exactly what happened.”
Penalty –
Verstappen: “The thing was that, when you’re in that position, you’re focusing on the car ahead…you commit. When you start first or second, you never really look behind. So I went for it, and then I realised, ‘shit, he doesn’t see me there’. So I was like trying to get out of it, but then we still clipped. Of course, that is on me. But I was expecting maybe 20 seconds, 30 seconds, I don’t know, stop and go.
“So maybe something to talk about for next time. [Being close to race ban with eight points,] maybe I go to 12 when the baby is born, I get a paternity leave. I don’t understand anything anymore, but it’s fine, whatever. I’m not going to get angry about stuff like that. It’s not worth my time and yeah, just have a break.”
Radio frustration (can’t abuse stewards) –
Horner: “I’m sure in any sport that there will always be frustration from players or sports people in the heat of the moment when you’re delivered a message about a penalty like that. In other sports, if footballers had microphones on, I’m sure there’d be a few choice words as well. [Back in Mexico, you said about abusing stewards not being right?] Circumstances change, but drivers don’t, and sometimes I do feel that it’s very unfair. And we hear all drivers rant and rave, we hear team principals rant and rave occasionally as well, that it is a little unfair sometimes.
“I mean, one of the benefits of this is the access that is given. You would never find a camera or microphone in a football or a rugby changing room or team room or a team talk. Microphones in their face before they get on a grid, when they get out of a car; it’s unique, and sometimes not every message is necessarily needed to be broadcast.”
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-chaos-on-the-race-start-as-piastri-drops-to-last-after-contact-with-verstappen.1817878174133810865
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