Red Bull team principal Christian Horner expressed his frustration and called for explanations from the FIA following the shocking double elimination of Max Verstappen and Red Bull during qualifying at the F1 2024 Brazilian GP. This occurred after a delayed red flag allowed their competitors to improve their times at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace.
With just over a minute remaining in the second qualifying session on November 3, Lance Stroll crashed into the wall, resulting in significant damage to his Aston Martin and ending his session. However, the race director seemed to postpone the red flag for nearly 40 seconds, which enabled other drivers to surpass Verstappen, dropping him to 12th place, while Sergio Perez fell to 13th as time continued to run out.
When Niels Wittich finally displayed the red flag, it left no opportunity for an out-lap or a restart, leading to Max Verstappen’s unexpected exit from Q3 for the first time this season. This prompted Horner to demand answers from the FIA regarding the reason for the delay.
“It’s hugely frustrating,” Horner told Sky Sports F1. “A session like that there’s obviously a huge amount going on. We don’t understand why it took so long for it [the red flag] to come out. It was obviously a big accident, one of the most dangerous corners on the circuit, 40 seconds it took to throw the red flag.” – the Red Bull team boss pointed out at the end of the qualifying session for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, which was held at the 4.309-kilometre Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Brazil.
“It’s the second day in a row now that we have had very late calls, whether it was the VSC yesterday or the red flag today. The other red flags were all instantaneous. Very, very harsh but it is what it is and we’ve got to try and fight back this afternoon. As soon as you have an accident like that it should be an immediate red flag. If they had red-flagged it immediately Max would have been 10th and he would have had time for another lap. We would like to understand the thinking of the race director to understand why it took so long to throw that red flag.” – Christian Horner added.
What could have caused the FIA to delay the red flag? Prior to stopping completely, Lance Stroll’s car was still in motion, which suggests that the FIA may have been keeping an eye on the clock and waiting to see if the Canadian could restart his Aston Martin.
While some cars had already managed to pass the crash site and thus avoided the double yellow flags, the FIA might also have been trying to allow Liam Lawson and Charles Leclerc the opportunity to finish their laps in an effort to be fair to all competitors.
Ultimately, this decision resulted in Verstappen being eliminated from the session, leaving Red Bull furious on a day when their chances of securing the constructors’ championship likely slipped away, while the Dutchman’s lead in the drivers’ standings appeared poised to diminish significantly.
Leave a Reply