Horner hits back

Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal has hit back at claims that his authority at the team has been undermined.

The Malaysian Grand Prix climax saw an irreparable fall out amongst the three-time Formula One constructors champions.

Team-mates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have had their moments of contention in the past, famously colliding in the past in Turkey 2010.

During the closing stages of the last race, on unpredictable Pirelli tyres, Red Bull gave out a team order to hold station.

With Mark Webber leading, that meant that Sebastian Vettel should have obeyed the team-order and finished second behind his Australian team-mate.

But despite various radio messages to Vettel, to stop being ‘silly’, the three-time Formula One World Champion ignored the call, risked crashing out with his team-mate to steal the victory.

During the parade lap Vettel was told he had a lot of ‘explaining’ to do and he subsequently apologised for his actions.

But as the teams and drivers arrived in China for this weekends Grand Prix, Vettel showed zero remorse for his actions, refusing to apologise for winning and stating that he’d probably do it all again if the opportunity arised.

In reaction to the comments, Red Bull announced that they would no longer be giving team orders to their drivers, but insisted that their drivers would ‘act in the best interests of the team’ and ‘act on the information they have from the team’.

The decision came following meetings between Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz.

Not really the hard stance that many would have liked the team hand out to their golden boy and in fact it almost suggests that the team actually didn’t agree with Horner’s call to begin with.

So has all of this undermined Horner’s position?

‘In that race he didn’t do as I asked, Was I happy? No. Did he apologise? Yes. Has he learned? Yes. Would he do it again? He explained yesterday – but there is history between those two drivers. Horner told Autosport Magazine.

‘It is not something new, it has been there for four/five years. They are one of the most successful partnerships in F1 history.

‘Is my leadership undermined? I don’t think so.

‘I have led the team from the time Red Bull entered to the sport to those three titles, there have been lumps and bumps along the way, but they drive the team forward.’

If you say so Christian.

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