04/06/2025
NEWS STORY
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has criticised world champion turned pundit Nico Rosberg for his claim that Max Verstappen should have been disqualified.
While the usual team of talking heads ask questions - and usually answer them - courtesy of feeds through their ear pieces, guest pundits like world champions Rosberg and Jacques Villeneuve opt for the 'off the cuff', more controversial stuff, confident that their on-track experience grants them a certain amount of leeway.
However, Christian Horner believes that Rosberg crossed a line when he claimed that Verstappen should have been shown the black flag for his Turn 5 clash with George Russell.
"The first one was George's fault because he went in too hot, oversteered out and tapped Max who then had to use the escape road," Rosberg told SkyF1 viewers. "That's not the way to do the pass.
"Red Bull messed up by saying let George pass," he continued. "That really annoyed Max because he knows George rammed him off. In Max's eyes he's like one hundred per cent in the right. 'Why are you telling me to do this, watch this I will show you what he did', slowed down and rammed into him which is even worse. To slow down and ram into another driver is pretty bad.
"That's a very lenient one from my point of view," he said of the 10s penalty. "Remember Sebastian Vettel against Lewis Hamilton in Baku 2017?
"It looked like a very intentional retaliation," he insisted. "Wait for the opponent, go ramming into him, just like you felt the other guy rammed into you at Turn 1.
"That's something which is extremely unacceptable and I think the rules would be a black flag. If you wait for your opponent to bang into him, that's a black flag."
"Nico's quite sensational in the way he commentates, so we'll leave it there," said Horner when told of Rosberg's opinion.
"Yeah, that's his opinion, everyone can have an opinion," added Verstappen.