Red Bull blast over ‘bizarre’ apology
MERCEDES have been accused of ‘bizarre’ tactics in ‘throwing themselves under the bus’ over Lewis Hamilton’s bungled strategy call at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, said he would never have singled out an employee to accept responsibility for an error, as happened when Mercedes’ chief strategist James Vowles came on the radio to confess his mistake in keeping Hamilton out during a virtual safety car phase.
It was the first time in living memory that anyone in Vowles’ position has intervened in such a public way.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Horner said: ‘I don’t know what makes Lewis tick, but it seems a fairly bizarre thing for somebody to feel they need to throw themselves under the bus to motivate a driver to go from fourth back into the lead.
‘One thing you have to do is win as a team and lose as a team. That is why, in success or failure, we hardly ever, if at all, speak about individuals.
That would put an unfair amount of pressure and scrutiny on that individual. Our philosophy is collective responsibility rather than individual.
‘There has to be accountability, but that is dealt with in the right environment behind closed doors.
Despite Vowles’ apologies, Hamilton was rattled by the mistake and sent a number of despairing messages back to the team before retiring with a fuel pressure problem. His non-finish meant Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel took a onepoint lead in the standings.