Red Bull's Helmut Marko has said that Mercedes' request for a right of review by the stewards over Max Verstappen's contentious defence against Lewis Hamilton in Brazil was an exercise in time-wasting. Heading to Qatar, all the attention on Thursday and into Friday morning was on the request from Mercedes, resulting in representatives of both teams meeting the stewards for lengthy hearings and deliberations. In the end, it all came to naught as the stewards didn't grant the right of review.
"Pointless and stupid"
Having spent so much time in the lead-up to the Qatar weekend preparing for the hearings, Marko criticised the decision to request the right of review as a waste of time, given that Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admitted he didn't expect it to go anywhere . "Everything came to nothing, as we expected," Marko told ServusTV . "It was clear that it was pointless and stupid." But the reason for the Mercedes request may have simply been a distraction for Red Bull, according to Marko, as he explained that it had shifted focus away from the important business of preparing their cars as well as possible. "It was tedious for the team because engineers who are supposed to make the car faster have to prepare documents instead," he said.
"A dangerous precedent"
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner made it clear that he felt Verstappen's actions didn't warrant a review or a punishment in retrospect, adding that it would have set a "dangerous precedent" . "If they do go down this route, then every single incident from now on will be questioned," he commented. "There'll be evidence from iPhones or spectators' phones. There'll always be something that can be deemed as new or relevant or significant, and I think that the stewards made their call."
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