Christian Horner believes the battle between Sergio Perez and Liam Lawson in the Mexico City Grand Prix proves both Red Bull-owned Formula 1 teams are “independent”.
Perez and Lawson clashed through Turns Four and Five at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.
Perez sustained damage in the wheel-to-wheel incident and Lawson later flipped the Mexican the middle finger when passing him later on in the race.
That got a powerful reaction out of Perez who claimed Lawson doesn’t have the right “attitude” for F1.
After the fiery clash, Horner told select media including Motorsport Week that “it demonstrates that the two teams do race each other, and whilst having the same ownership are independent in the way that they go racing.
“Liam has apologised, I think, to Checo for the incident.
“Obviously there’ll be lessons that come out of that, but frustrating certainly for Checo’s race to pick up the damage and lose valuable points today.”
McLaren has scrutinised Red Bull/RB relationship throughout 2024
Horner’s comments come after repeated scrutiny of the way Red Bull operates the two teams it owns in F1.
Amid RB forming a closer technical alliance with Red Bull, McLaren CEO Zak Brown repeatedly questioned in the off-season whether F1 should allow one entity to own two outfits.
McLaren’s concerns were raised once again in Singapore after RB pitted Daniel Ricciardo for a successful fastest-lap attempt.
That manoeuvre cost McLaren’s Lando Norris a crucial point in his fight to chase down Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ standings.
Ahead of the following race in Austin, Texas, Norris said: “If it was a repetitive thing, if it was to happen again this weekend or next weekend, then I think that’s where we would probably question it in a much deeper manner.”
At the time in Singapore, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella questioned whether RB was behaving in an “autonomous” manner.
Meanwhile, Horner defended RB’s decision to pit Ricciardo for the fastest lap, attributing it to being part of the Australian’s F1 send-off.
“Well, look, Daniel, he obviously wanted to finish the race on a high, so, you know, you’ll have to go and ask VCARB about that one,” Horner said.
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