Red Bull Abandons Appeal against Max Verstappen’s Five-Second Time Penalty in F1’s Saudi Arabian GP

Red Bull has officially ruled out launching a right-of-review petition against Max Verstappen’s decisive five-second time penalty in Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The polesitter was penalized for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at the start of the race, following a duel with McLaren‘s Oscar Piastri.

Verstappen’s Controversial Penalty Explained

Despite feeling forced off the circuit and being ahead at the apex, Verstappen and Red Bull decided not to hand the position back to Piastri. However, the FIA race stewards took a different view and handed the Dutchman a five-second penalty, which he served during his only pitstop. The team was furious over the verdict, with team boss Christian Horner even presenting onboard images from Verstappen’s car to show his driver was ahead.

Horner stated that the team would provide additional footage to the stewards that wasn’t available at the time of the decision, but he acknowledged that launching a right-of-review appeal would be unlikely to succeed. The team has now confirmed to Motorsport.com that it won’t take any further action.

F1 teams have until 96 hours after the race to launch such a petition, with McLaren last doing so after the 2024 United States Grand Prix, where Lando Norris was penalized for a similar offense in his contentious battle with Verstappen. ‘s right-of-review request was denied.

The Stewards’ Verdict on the Incident

In their verdict, the stewards determined that “car 81 had its front axle at least alongside the mirror of car 1 prior to and at the apex of corner 1 when trying to overtake car 1 on the inside. In fact, car 81 was alongside car 1 at the apex. Based on the Driver’s Standards Guidelines, it was therefore Car 81’s corner and he was entitled to be given room.

Car 1 then left the track and gained a lasting advantage that was not given back. He stayed in front of car 81 and sought to build on the advantage. Ordinarily, the baseline penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage is 10 seconds. However, given that this was lap one and turn one incident, we considered that to be a mitigating circumstance and imposed a five-second time penalty instead.