Horner surprised by ‘antagonistic’ Mercedes statement but “chapter closed”

The Milton Keynes outfit had its petition to revisit Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s controversial British Grand Prix collision rejected by the stewards on Thursday ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix after failing to provide any “new, significant and relevant” evidence.

Mercedes “welcomed" the decision but hit out at its main rival’s “concerted attempt by the senior management of Red Bull Racing to tarnish the good name and sporting integrity of Lewis Hamilton.”

Speaking publicly for the first time since aiming a number of scathing accusations towards Hamilton following the Silverstone race, Horner insisted Red Bull’s criticism of the seven-time world champion was not personal.

“The statement by Mercedes is a little antagonistic, shall we say, but I don’t really read too much into it,” Horner said.

“It’s never been anything personal about a single driver. It’s about the events that happened, and a competition between two guys, it’s not individual to any driver.

“If that had been any other driver the reaction would have been identical. So I was a little surprised by the Mercedes comments.

“We put that behind us and our focus is very much on track and obviously trying to build on the momentum that we’ve taken after the sprint race in Silverstone.”

Speaking to Sky Sports after opening practice at the Hungaroring, Wolff claimed Red Bull had triggered an “avalanche” of criticism towards Hamilton on social media.

“I think the comments that were made, surely out of emotion, were going directly against a seven-time world champion,” he said.

“Words like ‘amateurish” should have no place and what it triggered was an avalanche of comments in the social media, a lot of controversy, added to further polarisation and I think we as a sport should do the contrary. We should de-escalate.”

Regarding the stewards’ verdict, Horner said Red Bull accepts the decision and now considers the matter to be “closed”.

“We presented that data to the stewards, they gave us a fair hearing yesterday where we talked through that data, the positioning of the cars, the speed of the cars,” he explained.

“The fact that Lewis would have had to braked 23 metres earlier to have even made the corner, the fact that Max is on the same trajectory, identical to that of Charles Leclerc, the result with Charles would have been identical had Lewis taken the same approach.

“We presented that data, we feel that we had a fair hearing. The stewards felt that it wasn’t new evidence, under the confines of the regulations, and so it wasn’t opened into another hearing.

“We accept that. This competition is all about marginal gains, leaving no stone unturned and of course when you have an accident of that velocity and impact, of course you’re going to make a full investigation.

“But as far as we’re concerned, the chapter is now closed, the stewards have made their ruling and we now very much focus on this weekend and the remaining part of the championship.”