Horner understands FIA decision: 'But, we could only lose'

The Australian GP counted a total of three standing starts and a final rolling restart behind the safety car. There were three red flags. According to some, a controversial decision by the FIA, but understandable according to Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner, although his driver Max Verstappen was actually at risk.

Horner understands FIA choice

Verstappen lost his leading position on the first lap in Melbourne to George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. Through the chaos of the early stages, Verstappen worked his way back to P1 fairly quickly. By the middle phase of the race, the Dutchman was loose again and was able to pull a 10-second gap to Hamilton on P2. Until, with three laps to go, Kevin Magnussen crashed hard into the wall.

The race had to be restarted and on that standing restart things went wrong for many drivers. The Alpine's crashed out, Nyck de Vries crashed out and Logan Sargeant crashed out. Furthermore, more collisions and spins took place. Carlos Sainz was even penalised for this. With one lap to go, the race was restarted for a final lap behind the safety car. Horner found the FIA's decision understandable, but told Motorsport.com though: "If you are leading the race, you can only lose at that  point."

F1 teams don't want to finish behind safety car

The team boss understands the logic behind opting for a standing restart after the second red flag. Horner also seems happy that the initial decision was made to let the race finish without a safety car with three laps to go. The teams have talked about this often enough in the past, so it was the right decision by race control, according to Horner.

Verstappen who had already shown two weak starts at Albert Park up to that point did come under threat from the second red flag. Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were behind him, all on new(er) tyres. Verstappen did manage to get away well at that start and stay ahead of the chaos. According to Horner, it is a problem you will always maintain as race leader: "It is suddenly very variable and it becomes a kind of lottery."