Christian Horner frustrated by "massive impacts" of marginal stewards calls

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Horner frustrated by "massive impacts" of marginal stewards' calls

Horner was given a warning for his reaction to Verstappen's penalty

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Tuesday 23 November 2021 08:00 Updated: 10:28

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has reiterated he is frustrated with marginal stewards calls having "massive impacts" on the championship picture.

Horner was given an official warning and has volunteered to sit in on a stewarding course after his outburst in the wake of Max Verstappen's grid penalty for a yellow flag infringement during qualifying.

The penalty meant that Lewis Hamilton could stretch away at the Losail International Circuit uncontested to cut the championship gap to eight points.

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Horner has since apologised for his comments and whilst reiterating his regret that offence was taken, Horner pointed to the overall circumstances leading to high tensions.

"Following the penalty issued I made a comment on one of the marshals, that a rogue marshal waved a yellow flag, and the stewards took offence to that," he explained.

"I just reassured them that no offence was meant or intended with the individual. It was more frustration with the circumstance of having three or four cars pass the same car with no yellow flags, or double-waved yellow flags.

"The apology was accepted. I just want to make it clear, it wasn't pointed at marshals who do a wonderful job around the world.

"They're volunteers and without them there'd be no motorsport.

"It was just the circumstances that were frustrating, and I think there's something that can be learned from that."

Red Bull motorsports advisor Dr Helmut Marko was also scathing in his criticism of the FIA, suggesting it was "hiding behind its incompetence".

Asked if change was needed, Horner replied: "There's always room for improvement isn't there.

"We've seen other teams visually expressing their displeasure at the FIA as races as recent as Brazil.

"There's always going to be frustration when there's a tight competition, and marginal calls can have massive impacts, like we saw with the grid penalty."