Christian Horner presents ‘15km/h’ GPS data claim about Lando Norris’s driving

Christian Horner brought data to argue against Max Verstappen’s penalties at the F1 Mexico City Grand Prix, but confirmed Red Bull will not appeal the decisions. 

Verstappen was handed two 10-second penalties for forcing F1 title rival Lando Norris off track on two occasions on the same lap during Sunday’s race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

After running Norris wide at Turn 4, a lunge on the McLaren driver caused both to once again go off the circuit at Turn 7. Verstappen recovered to finish sixth but saw his championship advantage shrink to 47 points over Norris, who claimed second.

Red Bull team principal Horner presented to media including Crash.net a data print out claiming to reveal that Norris had carried more speed into Turn 4 when battling Verstappen than at any other point in the race.

“First of all yes I think it was very harsh to give two ten-second penalties,” Horner said. “I think there’s something more fundamental. I mean obviously there’s been a reaction to last weekend, and I think it’s very important for the drivers’ steward and the drivers to sit down.

“If I show you here on the GPS - this is on the run down to Turn 4 - this is actually Lando versus Lando, and what you can see is that the orange line is Lando’s fastest lap of the grand prix, so the point he is braking for Turn 4 and then obviously executing the corner.

“What you can see, is that on lap whatever it was [10] that’s been the incident with Max, he is 15 kilometers an hour faster, and later on the brakes than his fastest lap of the grand prix. He wouldn’t have made the corner. He would have run off track. You can see from his onboard steering.

“Of course at this point of the race he’s got probably 80 kilos more fuel than at the point that he’s done his fastest lap. It used to be a reward of the bravest to go around the outside, I think we’re in danger of flipping the overtaking laws upside down, where drivers will just try to get their nose ahead at the apex and then claim that they have to be given room on the exit.

“And you can see quite clearly he’s effectively come off the brakes, gone in super, super late to try and win that argument as far as the way these regulations are written, and then at that point you’re penalised.

“Now every karting circuit, every indoor karting circuit around the world, if you’ve got the inside line you control the corner. It’s one of the principles and the physics of racing. So they just need to get back to basics that if you’re on the outside you don’t have priority.

“Otherwise we will end up with a mess over these last five races. So I think it’s really important that the drivers’ steward, together with the drivers, agree something that is sensible rather than what we’re getting.”

Horner added: “It just changes the principle, the advantage used to be, the advantage was to have the inside line. The advantage will be to have the outside line and just brake later and claim foul. So I think we just have to be very careful.”

Horner said Red Bull would not try to appeal the penalties handed out to Verstappen.

“We won’t activate a right of review on this,” Horner said. “I think the most important thing is what is the way to go racing going forward, because I’m not sure that it’s clear to the drivers.”