Red Bull did not claim Hamilton-Verstappen F1 clash was deliberate

On Thursday ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Red Bull saw its appeal to revisit the incident in an attempt to increase the 10-second penalty handed to Hamilton rejected.

The stewards also noted “some concern” relating to allegations made by Red Bull in a letter included in its failed petition.

Following a strongly worded statement by Mercedes which condemned Red Bull’s conduct in response to the verdict, there were some suspicions as to whether Red Bull had accused Hamilton of intentionally crashing into Verstappen.

But speaking during Friday’s FIA press conference, Horner made it clear this was not the case.

“We didn’t at any point say in our submission that it was deliberate action,” Horner stated.

“Obviously tensions are running high between those two drivers. They’re fighting for the biggest goal in the sport, they’d been racing closely the previous day in the sprint race.

"You’d seen earlier in the lap that there was close-quarter, no-quarter racing going on between them. I think that would’ve been the only opportunity for Lewis to have made the pass on Max and I think he would have known that, as well, because I think we quite simply had had a quicker car on on the day.

“Had we survived that corner, we would have enjoyed a much different race on Sunday afternoon. That unfortunately didn’t happen. It is what it is. We now have the stewards’ ruling and we focus on going racing and doing the best to extract the best result that we can on track.”

Instead, Horner explained Red Bull’s allegations actually related to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff lobbying with the stewards during the race.

“Within the submission we talked about the process of approaching the stewards during the course of an event and I think the FIA have obviously subsequently clarified the process for that now which we’re fine with and pleased for that clarification,” he said. 

Horner was concerned that the conversation could have influenced the stewards' decision but said he was pleased the FIA will prevent team members from lobbying the stewards in the future. 

“It’s unusual practice obviously to do that,” he added. “You have to think of the FIA like a jury and of course you don’t want that jury to be influenced one way or another before making the decision.

“We were given the absolute assurance that wasn’t the case and absolutely respect that from the FIA, and with the clarifications moving forward as well it just prevents that scenario even becoming a possibility in the future.

“So I think the clarification has dealt with any of our concerns.”