Christian Horner expressed his confusion about the delay in showing the red flag during a crucial moment of the qualifying session in Brazil.
Lance Stroll’s late crash contributed to both Red Bulls being eliminated in Q2, but the final decision was made by race director Niels Wittich.
After Saturday’s rain caused delays, F1 returned to Interlagos for a 7:30 AM start to try and begin qualifying in better weather. However, it remained a very challenging session for the drivers, resulting in five red flags throughout.
While Lando Norris secured pole position, there was anger in the Red Bull camp due to a controversial decision from the race director that affected both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in Q2.
With just under two minutes left in Q2, Stroll crashed at Turn 3, but it took 40 seconds for Wittich to display the red flag. This seemed to allow drivers like Norris to set fast laps before stopping the session.
This delay left Verstappen angry, and Horner agreed that it didn’t make sense.
“It’s hugely frustrating,” he told Sky F1. “In a session like that, there’s obviously a huge amount going on. I don’t understand why it took so long for the red flag to come up.
“It’s obviously a big accident. Turn 3 is one of the most dangerous corners on the circuit. It took 40 seconds to throw the red flag, and this is the second day in a row that we’ve had very late calls, whether it was a VSC yesterday or the red flag today.
“The other red flags were all instant. So, it’s very, very harsh, but it is what it is. We’ve got to try and fight back this afternoon.”
That fight will start from deep in the grid, with Verstappen’s grid penalty likely putting him in P16, while Perez qualified 13th.
A slight positive is that the short time between qualifying and the race means some drivers who crashed might not be able to start. Alex Albon was the first to mention that his Williams had too much damage, although the team hasn’t confirmed this yet.
Regarding the red flag situation, Horner emphasized that safety should come first, not letting drivers complete their laps.
“You’ve got to focus on safety. It’s not about letting cars finish laps or not. When there’s an accident like that, it should be an immediate red flag, because you have a driver in the wall at one of the most dangerous corners, and cars are coming through.
You can’t just say, ‘oh, we’ll wait for the others to finish their laps.’ “It doesn’t work like that.”
“Lance Stroll wasn’t attempting to get that car moving again. It was damaged. It hit the barrier hard and was in the middle of the track at Turn 3, so that’s a red flag.
“If they had shown the red flag right away, Max would have finished 10th. If they had flagged it immediately, there would have been time for another lap.”
