Red Bull’s Christian Horner aims two wry digs at George Russell

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner landed two subtle digs at Mercedes driver George Russell following the British Grand Prix.

Horner was commenting on an incident which saw McLaren’s Oscar Piastri picking up a 10-second penalty for driving erratically during a restart following a Safety Car at Silverstone.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen appeared to be caught out Piastri suddenly braking and spun coming out of Copse corner as he dropped down the order, before recovering to finish fifth.

“I wasn’t surprised to see him get a penalty. I was more surprised that George didn’t get one in Montreal,” Horner told media including Crash.net.

Horner’s swipe at Russell referred to Red Bull’s unsuccessful protest against the Briton for what they felt had been unsportsmanlike driving under a late Safety Car at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull team boss went on to have a second, unprompted, tongue-in-cheek dig at Russell, adding: “We’ll focus on the positives. We know where we need to improve. We have outscored George Russell…”

Red Bull’s low downforce gamble backfires

Horner explained Red Bull’s gamble to set Verstappen’s car up with a low-downforce set-up.

The move paid off in dry conditions in qualifying as the four-time world champion claimed a sensational pole position, but Verstappen struggled in the wet on Sunday.

Horner acknowledged that in hindsight the risk did not pay off.

“We cleaned out the car to Monza levels of downforce. We got a balance which enabled Max to get a fantastic pole position which matched Sebastian Vettel’s record,” Horner said.

“It was based on a forecast of 20% rain on Sunday morning then dry conditions. I don’t think any forecast we saw showed any chance of rain that heavy, that late.

“It was clear early that Oscar had an advantage pace-wise. As the tyres overheated, as it dried out, you could see McLaren’s advantage, particularly on that tyre. They were miles ahead of the rest of the pack.

“The rain started. The guys who went to slicks went too early. It was clear rain was coming. I felt we got the crossover time right.

“We jumped past Lando, which got Max into position. Thereafter, the Safety Car came out. That’s where the race started to unfold for us, unfortunately.

“Oscar did what he did on the brakes. It caught [Max] out completely unaware, so all of your preparation and switches aren’t in the right place. He had a half-spin out of Stowe, I thought it was a very good catch.

“In the pack, in dirty air, in those conditions, with the downforce we were running, you could see how hard it was. As it dried out the car had more pace and he worked his way through.

“A difficult race. Had it been two hours later it could have been a different outcome. It would have been tough to beat the McLarens but we should have been on the podium.”