F1 journalist and former team and sponsorship manager Peter Windsor was full of praise for the Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, in the way he handled Max Verstappen's penalty at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman received a five-second penalty for overtaking Oscar Piastri on lap 1 of Sunday's Grand Prix, cutting the chicane and gaining an advantage which was not handed back, resulting in him dropping down to P2 after serving he penalty, which is where he ended.
Afterwards, the 27-year-old was extremely angry with the decision made by the stewards and the FIA, which resulted in him swearing over the team radio after initially hearing about the penalty, then
deciding not to speak about the penalty in the paddock afterwards.
Horner handling changing scene at Red Bull "pretty well"
"In my opinion, I thought he did quite a good job of calming Max," Windsor started by saying to his YouTube channel, believing that Horner did a good job at keeping things together on the pit wall.
"I don't know whether it was his voice or not, but presumably he endorsed everything that was going out, which was, 'We all have our opinions, Max. Let's get on with it and go racing.'"
Windsor continued on by then talking about how the Brit has been able to keep the Red Bull ship upright, despite many issues hitting the Austrian team, including the loss of many top team individuals, along with the allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
"I think he has his team together there, and they are coming together pretty well post Adrian Newey leaving," was Windsor's concluding verdict.
This article was written in collaboration with Marnik Kok