Red Bull furious of ‘very harsh’ Verstappen penalty

Oscar Piastri’s winning move at Turn 1 has Red Bull rattled with Christian Horner and Max Verstappen expressing their frustration in different ways.

The 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was decided at the very first turn where Piastri and Verstappen went wheel to wheel.

It was the Australian who prevailed after a lightening getaway pushed the #81 McLaren ahead of the pole-sitting Red Bull by the time the field arrived at the tight opening left hander.

With Piastri “knew I had to be firm” and did that by taking the racing line through the left-right sequence.

This forced Verstappen to take to the runoff and cut the second corner and emerge in front.

As a result, Verstappen received a 5s penalty, which handed Piastri track position and he controlled the race from there, taking a 2.8s victory.

The incident itself was extremely like Austin 2023 when Norris passed Verstappen in the run off and received the same penalty, while the Red Bull driver himself has experienced near identical moves against Lewis Hamilton in the famous 2021 Jeddah race.

However, Verstappen was clearly frustrated and refused to elaborate his views in what is becoming a familiar post-race move from the four-time world champion in the FIA press conferences.

“Start happened, Turn 1 happened and suddenly it was lap 50,” Verstappen said in the press conference after walking out early from the on track post race chat with David Coulthard.

“The problem is I cannot share my opinion about it because I might get penalised also so better not to speak about it.

“I know I cannot swear in here, but at the same time you cannot also be critical or any kind of form that might harm or endanger.

“That is why it’s better not to talk about it, you know, because you can put yourself in trouble and I don’t think anyone wants that.”

Meanwhile, Horner offered a clearer insight into Red Bull’s perspective and even took on board photos from Verstappen’s perspective to his interviews with the media.

Despite stating that it was unlikely Red Bull would protest, Horner was clear he believed the penalty was “very harsh” and Verstappen deserved more racing room.

“I thought it was very harsh,” Horner said.

“We didn’t concede the position because we didn’t believe that he’d done anything wrong.

“You can quite clearly see at the apex of the corner. We believe that Max is clearly ahead.

“The rules of engagement they have discussed previously and it was a very harsh decision.

“I can’t see how they (stewards) got to that conclusion because Max just can’t disappear at this point in time.

“We had to serve the five-second penalty and thereafter on the same basic stint as Oscar we finished 2.6 seconds behind.

“So, without that five-second penalty today, it would have been a win.

“There’s always going to be a difference of opinion over a very marginal decision like that.”

Image: Getty

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