The qualifying for the Grand Prix of Qatar had ended with the ‘yellow’ – in every sense – of the infringement committed by Max Verstappen and two other drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz: while the latter two did not seem to have slowed down under a single yellow flag, as later ascertained in the case of the Mercedes’ Finn, the accusation was even heavier against the Dutchman of the Red Bull, under investigation for not having raised his foot despite the exposure of the double yellow flag, exposed by a marshal to signal the danger of Pierre Gasly’s car stopped on the track.
For this reason, once the fault of Mad Max – penalized by 5 positions on the grid – the Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, he had indulged in comments that were anything but light and friendly not only towards the stewards; in fact, during an interview with Sky Sports F1 UK, the British manager had defined the penalty to his driver “A gift for Mercedes”, as well as insulting the course commissioner by indicating him as one “Rogue” (Rogue Marshall, the original words). Following these statements, Horner was then summoned by the stewards at the end of the race for the violation of Article 12 of the Sporting Code, receiving a warning for his behavior.
After the public apology from the person concerned, the Clerk of the Course Michael Masi however, he went back to underlining what had happened, as he no longer considered such an attitude on the part of any member of the paddock to be tolerable, especially towards the race marshals: “Christian was very apologetic and didn’t mean to offend anyone – confirmed the Australian – however, I think you shouldn’t attack just anyone, especially the thousands of volunteer commissioners who offer a lot of their free time to our sport. Without them, all this would not be possible, and I will strive to defend every volunteer present on the circuits around the world, to ensure that these phrases are no longer accepted. The Commissioner has taken a security initiative – he added – and he acted in order to keep everyone safe on track. I don’t think anyone should be criticized for acting according to their instincts with the intention of protecting the riders on the track ”.
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