Christian Horner believes the current rules for corner cutting and gaining an advantage are too open to interpretation after questioning what difference there was between Max Verstappen’s and Lewis Hamilton’s turn one moves during the Mexican Grand Prix.
Verstappen was penalised with a five-second time penalty for appearing to gain an advantage, whilst Hamilton was not punished at all, despite Horner feeling that both the Red Bull Racing driver and the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team racer did the same thing.
Horner believes that the introduction of a gravel trap at that turn will prevent future inconsistencies with the rules, especially as it would be a bigger penalty to run through gravel rather than grass or concrete.
“There is an argument for a gravel trap because then if you end up in the gravel you either lose an enormous amount of time, or you are out of the race,” said Horner on Autosport.
“It’s something that should be looked at for corners such as Turn 1 [in Mexico] to see if gravel is a better deterrent than large Tarmac run-off areas. It remains too open to interpretation because why was Max’s move any different to Lewis at the chicane in Monte Carlo, or Lewis in Mexico?
“You are leaving it constantly up to the stewards’ interpretation on individual events, but if there is a gravel trap there then you pay the price. It’s simple.”
