Horner Says Red Bull F1 Team May Seek Further Penalties Against Hamilton

• Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton crashed on the opening lap of the British GP

• Verstappen was out of the race and was sent to a local hospital

• Hamilton was given a 10-second penalty but won the race

Red Bull F1 Team Principal Christian Horner is still upset. Nearly a week removed from an opening lap accident at Silverstone’s Copse Corner that put his driver Max Verstappen out of the race and in a local hospital, Horner said this week that the accident that destroyed their RB16B will cost the team $1.8 million and will have ‘massive ramifications’ for the rest of the F1 season.

Title leader Verstappen and his closest rival reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton got together on the first lap last Sunday in the British Grand Prix. The contact resulted in Verstappen sliding off the turn and hard into the wall at an estimated 51Gs. Hamilton would later be given a 10-second time penalty for the contact by the FIA stewards.

Horner said that after soon after the accident he did something he has never done in the 16 and a half seasons he’s been in F1.

“It was brought to my attention through the TV broadcast that Toto (Wolfe, Mercede’s team principal) was going to see the stewards with information he had tried to email to Michael before they had ruled on a penalty,” Horner wrote on the Red Bull team’s blog. “It is a little bit like trying to lobby a jury while they make their final verdict. The Stewards are locked away to ensure they are independent of external influence in order to reach their own conclusions.