The five-second penalty given to Max Verstappen in Jeddah has stirred up quite a bit of controversy. Several prominent figures within Red Bull, including team boss Christian Horner and Verstappen himself, disagree with the Dutchman’s penalty. However, filing a protest is not an option. ‘You need new evidence for that,’ explains advisor Helmut Marko.
Max Verstappen received the time penalty from the stewards in Jeddah for ‘unfairly gaining an advantage by leaving the track’ during his battle with Oscar Piastri. However, the stewards did not give Verstappen the ‘standard time penalty’ of ten seconds usually applied for such an offence, as the incident occurred in the first lap.
Nevertheless, team boss Christian Horner, advisor Helmut Marko, and Verstappen himself disagreed with the penalty. “In Formula 2, no one got a penalty for this,” Marko defended Verstappen’s moment, while Horner even brought photos to his press moment. According to the team boss, these photos showed Verstappen leading Piastri at the apex.
“We will ask the FIA to look at the new material from the cockpit, which was not previously available,” the team boss explains. Will the team then file a protest against the time penalty? “We will discuss it and show them these photos, but a protest is unlikely.”
No New Evidence
Marko explains why Red Bull is not considering filing a protest. “In theory, we could file a protest, but then you also need to provide new evidence. And for that, you need to have new evidence. However, you can clearly see everything on the television images, so we see no reason to file a protest.” Verstappen himself, however, wants to put the whole incident behind him. “It’s not in my interest,” he said. “My only interest is to go home.”
