The row which saw Red Bull Racing boycott all Sky F1 interviews at the Mexican GP grew further today. The Times’ columnist Matthew Syed has slated Christian Horner for “delusional” behaviour and claims the Red Bull boss “is tarnishing the whole sport of Formula One.”
“Lewis Hamilton was robbed”, opens Syed. “I think we should make that plain at the start of this column. “I emphasise this because Christian Horner and Max Verstappen of Red Bull decided to boycott Sky Sports after one of their reporters used this word in relation to the finale of the 2021 season, after a controversial safety car restart in the last moments of the race.”
Interpretation error or ‘theft’?
“Even the FIA, the sport’s governing body, admits that this was a significant error from the race director”
“So, permit me to say it again: Hamilton was robbed. If the rules had been correctly applied, he would now have an eighth world title.”
“If the race director had done his job, Mercedes would boast another champion. Horner may now be pondering whether to ban The Times, and perhaps The Sunday Times too, on the basis of this assertion,” taunts Syed.
“If so, it won’t be long before Red Bull are avoiding all press outlets, and perhaps all social media too. Because ‘robbed’ is the way most people think about that incident.”
“This doesn’t imply that Hamilton was robbed by Horner or Verstappen — it just means that he was denied what was rightfully his, which is pretty much the textbook definition of the term.”
Horner: ultimate in gracelessness
Syed then blasts Horner for claiming the mental health of Red Bull employees has suffered due to other teams calling them cheats for breaching the cost cap regulations in 2021.
“Instead of owning up to his error, Horner has lashed out on those who have dared to criticise him.”
“At a press conference last week, he said that the censure Red Bull has received has undermined his team’s ‘mental health’ and has led to the children of staff being ‘bullied’ in the playground.”
“I had always thought that José Mourinho was the ultimate in gracelessness under pressure (to invert Ernest Hemingway’s quote) but Horner has taken it to a new level.”
“How dare the Red Bull principal deploy sensitive moral issues such as bullying and mental health to deflect from his own rule-breaking.”
“If there are mental health issues at Red Bull as a result of their rule breach, the responsibility lies with them and them alone; not with those who have criticised them.”
“To say otherwise is an Alice in Wonderland inversion, a gaslighting of those who stayed within budget.
Syed oversimplifies his argument
This seems a little harsh given the reality of the situation was the likes of McLaren Boss Zak Brown attempting to lobby the FIA during their investigation and process. His letter described “any team” breaking the regulations as “cheating” – knowing full well from an FIA leak Red Bull were in breach.
Brown later denied to Horner’s face it was directed at them, though his comments were not persuasive.
Further Syed clearly has little or no understanding of accounting and audit processes, where at times there are grey areas and categorisation of expenses open to interpretation.
Syed concludes, “Like Mourinho at his worst, Horner is willing to blame everyone else, to distort reality, even to boycott those with whose opinions he disagrees, to sustain the pretence that everything Red Bull does is pure and it is only the ill intent of others that obscures this fact.”
Horner ‘a loser’
“The older one gets, the more one realises that it is not winning that matters in life, but the way one conducts oneself.
“Horner may have won both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships this season but in his manner and example, he is tarnishing not only his team but F1, too.
“You might even — at the risk of a fresh boycott — call him a loser,” Syed concluded.
Matthew Syed should apply for a job in Formula One because at times his viscous piece is worth of anything ever recorded of the Piranha club.
Amanda Newey wades into row
In what was a surprising intervention, Adrian Newey’s wife tweeted her disgust to Sayed.
@matthewsyed “What qualifies you to judge me, my husband’s or any member or family member of Red Bull’s mental state? When you get a year of abuse, and you don’t even work for the team, it wears you down. Provoking the fans with toxic journalism adds to the problem.”
Amanda Newey works as an insight officer for Swim England which “help people learn to swim, enjoy the water, and compete in swimming, artistic swimming, water polo and diving.”
Christian Horner has revealed the boycott of Sky F1 was for Mexico City only and ‘normal service will resume’ in Brazil.
READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton contract talks on hold
Cue the commentary! #F1 @LewisHamilton pic.twitter.com/nzGgvGhurn
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 2, 2022
Syed is full of it, with this own metal shit. Seems he can’t take a hit and writes a column full of accusations to get rid of it.
Hamilton didn’t win the race in Abu Dhabi last season for the pure and simple reason that he hadn’t been brought in for a change of tyres. Every one knows that!! The mistake was, and still sits with Mercedes making a massive error!!
Even Hamilton himself said before the restart “how am I going to keep him (Verstapen) behind me with him on fresh tyres.
I’m not particularly a Hamilton fan, but it has to be said (and most people know) that Hamilton didn’t lose. Mercedes threw it away!!
You’re either a bit slow on the uptake or wilfully ignorant. It’s common knowledge that teams make decisions based on the rules. If Hamilton had stopped he’d have lost track position to Max, and the race wasn’t due to be restarted he’d have thrown the title away with an unnecessary pit stop. Had the race restarted with back markers in place, Max would have had to pass 2 cars to get to the back of Hamilton. The fact ONLY the cars between Max and Hamilton were moved out the way, and not the cars behind Max so he knew he had no threat behind, it’s cheating plain and simple. Max only won the title because the rules were broken in his favour. AD actually finished under safety car. Lewis won.
The teams almost ‘ordered’ the fia to not let the race finish under yellow. Masi came, under extreme pressure, with this alternative. Which was not illegal because the rules allowed him this wiggleroom. By removing only the cars that could influence the battle between the two title contenders, he managed to finish the race. Nobody predicted that. Nobody could act on it. RB had to be aggressive and attack. Therefore they actually had no choice but to pit. MB had the choice but choose not to. The rest is history.
Jeez that was a pretty brutal takedown for a small protest! As Michael Winner once said ‘Everybody needs to call down!’
Toxic journalism indeed – at its worst as its hardly factual! Well said Mrs Newley. Having watched the Abu Dhabi GP last year, I recall Toto Woolf – as well as Christian Horner – asking that the race NOT be finished behind the Safety Car … well, he got his wish: Massi could not have achieved their wishes in any other way
Strange how my comment with the link to this in the other article didn’t get posted, then all of a sudden a new post dedicated to slating the Times article appears 🤔
So, robbed? Like Max was at Silverstone? Now THAT was actual robbery! Sye is just as butt hurt as Toto was…. I hope they are boycotted the rest of the season as well as next one!
Robbed of what? His dignity? Max has to learn how to race with others. It’s not his track, he didn’t have the corner, he was outside and needed to yield.
I think Sayed is the perfect example of the hamfosi way of thinking. Locked up in their own bubble, blind for history, facts or other arguments. No nuance, perspective or empathy. Not capable to reason from the other point of view, let alone Masi’s point of view. Using big words and lots of emotion. Every opinion is a fact and every error is a deliberate and planned crime.
Reminds me of a religion…
Tbh the way you just blindly dismiss it, you must attend the Church of Max on your knees every weekend.
I don’t dismis it, I even read it after the judge’s article so your ‘blindly ‘ is again proof of your bias. I give my opinion about it. And your reaction is exactly supporting what I said. Tnx!
I’m an F1 fan, not Hamilton or max. If I have any leaning it would be towards McLaren.
The above article is so hamfisted that it totally ignores that every team had a dry run on the accounts auditing last year. There is no excuse of “grey area” as this had been addressed. It is even more likely that this years car will be further over the cap because RB thought they had a loophole for overspend. They didn’t.
Weird how RB since 2014 lobbied for a cost cap and then they were the only one to breach it. Almost like they planned it. Which given how meticulous they are, is the only possible conclusion. Cheats.
Omg. Again you present your personal opinion as facts and draw conclusions based on nothing factual. Are you really so stupid or just pretending to be? Because YOU, in your endless ignorance, think something is weird, does not make it hard prove for a conclusion.
What you do is exactly what the likes of Trump do. Insinuating everything without any ground or prove. Just stoking and igniting. Disgusting.
Judge, you seem oblivious to your own toxic journalism. Here pandering to a toxic team making it even worse. Give your head a wobble and hopefully find some ethics and integrity.
it’s interesting she seems to not care that’s Horner, is the primary cause of all the hatred, and animosity. Until something is done about him, the situation isn’t going to get any better!