Red Bull to take on Mercedes: "Masi made the right decision"

Red Bull Racing will not shy away from a battle with Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton's team indicated to challenge the race committee's decision on the closing stages of the Abu Dhabi GP. Red Bull says: 'Bring it on!'

Difficult choice for the FIA

Race control was faced with a fiendish choice. With just five laps to go, Nicholas Latifi crashed hard into the wall. A safety car was unavoidable, but with five laps to go it was particularly important whether the race organisers chose to run another lap or finish the race behind the safety car. Michael Masi and his team mates opted for the former and that brought them a lot of criticism from the Mercedes camp.

Team chief Toto Wolff immediately arranged a double protest after the race. The protests were rejected, but the team didn't leave it at that. Wolff again announced immediately that he will appeal against the FIA ruling. Rival team boss of Red Bull Racing Christian Horner in turn said that he would not shy away from another fight with Mercedes; in whatever court.

Masi made right choice

Racer.com spoke to Horner about Mercedes' protests after the race. The team boss says he is ready to fight back against Mercedes' appeal. They will defend themselves in the court of appeal and in court if necessary. Horner: "Masi made the right decision. He followed the rules procedure if you look at the rules available to him and he’s made the right call today."

Horner does still look with an oblique eye at the opening of the race, which he feels Masi did make a mistake by not punishing Lewis Hamilton for the fight with Max Verstappen. Relieved, Horner nevertheless concludes that he understands the difficult situation that the race committee sometimes finds itself in.