06/07/2021
NEWS STORY
Following Sunday's penalty-fest, Christian Horner has warned that in future drivers could resort to diving in a bid to get rivals penalised.
In addition to penalties for Sergio Perez (twice) and Lando Norris, for forcing opponents off track, Yuki Tsunoda was punished for crossing the pitlane entry and Kimi Raikkonen for his collision with Sebastian Vettel.
Once the flag had fallen, 11 drivers were summoned by the stewards for yellow flag misdemeanours, resulting in penalties for Nikita Mazepin and Nicholas Latifi.
Norris was penalised for not giving Perez enough room as the Mexican attempted to pass him and thereby forcing the Mexican off track, while later in the race the Red Bull driver was penalised twice for similar offences against Charles Leclerc in Turns 4 and 6.
In each incident the offending driver was handed 2 penalty points, thereby bringing Norris to within 2 points of a race ban and Perez 4.
Horner fears that punishing drivers for what he feels are racing incidents will lead to drivers effectively 'diving' in a bid to harm rivals.
"The incident with Checo and Lando was racing," he said. "If you go round the outside, you take the risk, particularly when you are not in a position where you are ahead.
"I think the FIA, having awarded that penalty, then could not award a penalty for a very similar move with Charles," he admitted.
"These guys have raced in karting since when they were kids and it happens," he continued, "if you go around the outside you take the risk, even if you are ahead.
"So I think the penalties were a bit harsh and it does slightly go against the 'let them race' mantra we have been championing in recent years.
"You don't want the equivalent of footballers taking a dive," he warned. "I think we need to avoid that.
"But it's incredibly difficult and we talk about these things very often. It's a difficult job for the race director, but I do think that maybe the incidents that we saw could have led to more racing incidents than being deserving of penalties."
Horner said that the matter would be discussed by the team managers and drivers with Michael Masi ahead of the forthcoming British Grand Prix.
"I think they will discuss that at length, I'm sure," he said. "They always discuss incidents at the previous race, so I'm sure they will discuss this at Silverstone."