In the round-up: Red Bull team principal Christian Horner accuses Mercedes of trying to undermine Max Verstappen’s world championship success.
In brief
Mercedes tried to “discredit” Verstappen as champion – HornerHorner insisted Mercedes made a strategic error by failing to pit Lewis Hamilton when the Safety Car period began in the title-deciding race, even though doing so would have given Red Bull the opportunity to get Verstappen ahead of his rival and into a championship-winning position.
Mercedes’ criticism of the handling of the restart by FIA Formula 1 race director Michael Masi was a “smokescreen” to deflect from their strategy, added Horner, who denied the official had failed to follow the rules correctly.
Horner also drew attention to Hamilton and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff’s decision not to attend the official FIA prizegiving ceremony, instead choosing to send the team’s technical director James Allison to collect their constructors championship…