Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has criticised his own driver, Sebastian Vettel, for blatantly ignoring team orders.
The German driver chose not to obey the wishes of the team, which was to remain in second place behind team-mate Mark Webber who was leading the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Vettel said he “didn’t do it deliberately,” but Horner isn’t convinced and says he put his own interests before those of the team.
“Do you honestly think that if we’d told him to slow down and give the place back, he would have given it back?” Horner said. “There was no point, there was no point. He made it quite clear what his intention was by making the move.
“He’d had the communication and knew what it was and he chose to ignore it,” Horner confirmed. “He put his interest beyond what the team’s position was and he was focused on those eight points difference between second and first.
“That was wrong, he has accepted it was wrong, and from a team’s perspective Formula One is a team sport.”
when asked if he would discipline the 25-year-old for his actions, he said there would be further discussions on top of those which have already taken place.
“It’s the type of thing we will talk about behind closed doors. He and I have had the discussion already, once we’ve taken the emotion out of it with time to reflect we’ll have another discussion before the next race.”
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