Horner was frustrated by a series of decisions made by current F1 race director Michael Masi during the Jeddah race, including the five-second penalty that ultimately squandered Horner’s chances of victory. Max Verstappen.
In a race in which Masi had to make important decisions on red flags, calling back positions, bartering with Red Bull over grid spaces and judging off-track overtaking, Horner felt it had not been a good day for the F1.
It’s no secret to say that Masi ‘s latest decisions have completely divided the opinion of the competitors. Following the Saudi Grand Prix, Horner explained what F1 has been and still is missing following Whiting’s passing in 2019.
Referring to Verstappen’s comments that the decisions made during the race were not typical of F1, Horner said: “I think we are over-regulated.
“There are rules to leave a gap of 10 cars, so the formation lap is not a formation lap if it really is a restart. I feel there are too many rules.
“I felt like Formula 1 was missing Charlie Whiting today, I’m sorry to say, but the experience he had…” added a saddened Christian Horner.
“Obviously it’s frustrating, but yes, it’s difficult for Michael [Masi] and the stewards, particularly on these types of circuits, with the amount of debris that was on the track and the type of corners that there are, but yes, in the end it is the same for everyone.”
Horner questioned the consistency of the FIA ‘s decision-making and stated that Masi’s rulings against Verstappen , including the positional penalty ahead of the second restart and the five-second penalty, contrasted with Hamilton not being penalized for allegedly ignoring flags. yellow and almost colliding with Nikita Mazepin in the last free practice session on Friday.
“Obviously almost all the decisions went against us, like they did in Doha a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “Then yesterday we saw two incidents that … had different decisions to put it mildly.”
On the other hand, Horner admitted that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix race was very complicated to manage as it involved managing a lot of debris on the track, so it was also not easy for the people who have to make decisions. instantly.
However, he considered that there were great lessons to be learned from everything that happened in Jeddah.
“I think today was a difficult race for them,” he said in reference to the direction of the race. “Obviously there was a lot of debris, there was a lot of traffic, they had to look forward and back to investigate several different incidents, and then in-person, virtual safety cars, restarts, etc.”
“It’s obvious that some of the process was difficult to manage, so I think there are a lot of lessons from that race that will be discussed in depth over the next few weeks,” concluded the Red Bull team principal.
