Horner warns of F1 penalties becoming equivalent of 'diving footballers'
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner fears that current penalty rules could encourage drivers to deliberately push a rival into a fault, a move akin to "diving footballers".
The debate is ongoing over the penalties handed to Lando Norris and Sergio Perez in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix in which both drivers were found guilty of forcing an opponent off the track.
Norris was hit with a five-second penalty for holding his line around Turn 5 and forcing Perez into the gravel, while the Mexican later found himself on the receiving end of the stewards' wrath when he indulged in a similar maneuver - twice - to defend his position against Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Regarding the first clash between Perez and Norris on lap 3, Horner labeled the tussle a racing incident.
“The incident between Checo and Lando, that's racing,” he said. “You go around the outside, you take the risk, particularly when you're not in a position of being ahead.
“But I think the FIA, having awarded that [first] penalty, then couldn't not award a penalty for a very similar move with Charles.
“These guys have raced in karting from when they were kids, and know if you go around the outside you take the risk, particularly if you're not ahead.
“So yeah I think the penalties were a bit harsh and it sort of does slightly go against the 'let them race' mantra that we've been championing in recent years.”
But taking a broader view of events, Horner warned about the risks of a driver purposefully abusing the penalty system when battling wheel-to-wheel with an opponent, although such an approach would obviously entail a risk of losing positions for anyone resorting to such a tactic.
"You don't want the equivalent of footballers taking a dive,” said the Red Bull boss. “I think we need to avoid that.
“I know it's incredibly difficult, because we talk about these things very often, and it’s difficult for the race director, but I did feel that maybe the incidents that we did see could have been leant to more racing incidents than been deserving of penalties.”
After Sunday's race, FIA race director Michael Masi was predictably queried on the afternoon's incidents. The Aussie doesn't deliberate a driver's case with the stewards, but he shed some light on the fundamental principle that led to all three sanctions.
“In the first case, in Sergio’s one with Lando, he was wholly alongside Lando,” Masi told reporters. “Therefore, there is an onus to leave a car’s width to the edge of the track.
“Then it was the same in reverse with Checo and at exit of turn four, and then Checo and Charles again at the exit of turn six.
“Obviously I don’t sit in the stewards' room to deliberate, but their view was in all three circumstances a car’s width should have been left to the edge of the track because the two cars were alongside each other.”
Masi's view, while it goes by the book, appears to omit to consider that a driver committed to a corner will almost always be taken to the track's edge by his momentum, a fact that someone attempting to drive around the outside must be aware of.
Interestingly, on the safety car restart, Perez made an initial attempt to drive around the outside of Norris at Turn 1 where the Mexican also ran wide, but beyond the track's limits, on the asphalt.
The move was not sanctioned while Norris' maneuver at Turn 5 was. Had the presence of a gravel trap at the latter corner played a part in the stewards' call?
“Obviously, gravel does have an impact in those places, so you would say yes looking at it logically," admitted Masi.
“Each of those you have to look at on their merits, characteristics of the circuit etc.”
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