Christian Horner makes his feelings known about Max Verstappen's "stupid idiots" remark for F1 stewards
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has backed his driver Max Verstappen amidst backlash for his "stupid idiots" remark against the FIA stewards. The inception of the remark came from the incident that the driver was involved in on the first lap of the race at last week's Abu Dhabi GP.
At the start of the race, Verstappen lunged down the inside of Piastri into turn 1. The move was overly ambitious as it led to contact between the two drivers and hence spun both the cars around. Max Verstappen was considered the guilty party for that incident, and he would be given a 10-second time penalty. When the driver was told on the team radio about the penalty, the Dutchman called the FIA stewards "stupid idiots."
Red Bull boss Christian Horner was questioned about the driver's remarks against the stewards, to which he said that it was unfair that every word that came out of the driver's mouth when they were driving the car got overanalyzed. Talking to the media, including Sportskeeda, he said:
"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."
He added:
"Sometimes I do feel that it's very unfair. We hear all drivers rant and rave. We hear team principals rant and rave occasionally as well. It is a little unfair sometimes. One of the benefits to this sport 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 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."
Christian Horner on Max Verstappen's penalty
Red Bull boss Christian Horner was also questioned about the 10-second penalty that Max Verstappen got for the collision with Oscar Piastri. According to Horner, it was just a case of a driver going for a gap that he saw. Ultimately the McLaren driver didn't see him coming which led to contact. Horner said:
"Max just talked about it in the briefing, he saw a gap, he went for it. I don't think Oscar saw him and that gap closed down. He tried to get as hard 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."
By the end of the 2024 F1 season, Max Verstappen has retained his championship and is now a 4x winner. Red Bull, on the other hand, has been unable to achieve the same and ceded the title to McLaren.