Christian Horner: “The car complied with the rules…”

Christian Horner has played down the effect of the FIA ruling that has the prevented RBR from running holes in the floor ahead of the rear wheels.

He’s also keen to refute suggestions that the rule clarification means that the cars were running illegally, as in effect the rules have actually changed since Monaco.

“Mark won Monaco fair and square first of all,” said Horner. “The car complied with the rules, it complied with scrutineering. “The teams had a right to protest if they felt that it contravened in any way, and no team chose to do that.

“Since then there’s obviously been a bit of debate as to what’s a hole and what’s a boundary surface and so on, and a clarification – and it’s the right way to have dealt with the issue – has [been made] since Monte Carlo.

“In terms of the effect it will have on car performance for us, firstly we didn’t plan to run it here anyway, and it’s negligible. Plus it doesn’t only affect Red Bull Racing, there are a couple of other cars that were running similar concepts.”

Horner said that the team didn’t think it was risking any penalty when it ran with the holes in Monaco, despite negative rumblings in the paddock.

“We felt it was completely legal, and the technical delegate agreed with that opinion prior to the event. It’s like a lot of areas on probably a lot of cars. The regulations are open to interpretation.

“Our interpretation we discussed with the FIA, and the FIA were happy with it, and they sought to further clarify the position, which has resulted in effectively that configuration not being permissible moving forward – in the opinion of the technical delegate.”