Red Bull Racing star Max Verstappen was in hot water once again at the Mexico City Grand Prix. Max Verstappen leads the Drivers’ Championship by 47 points with four Grand Prix and two Sprint Races remaining, but his Red Bull hasn’t been the fastest car on the grid since Miami. Verstappen was criticised for his battle with Lando Norris which saw him pick up two ten-second penalties and two penalty points added to his superlicense.

He still needs another six penalty points to pick up a one-race ban with Kevin Magnussen the only driver this season to fall foul of reaching that limit. Photo by Daniel Cardenas/Anadolu via Getty ImagesHowever, Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner was very conscious not to solely blame Verstappen for the misdemeanours at the Mexico City Grand Prix. READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriendHorner warned F1 it was getting into ‘dangerous territory’ with its approach to penalties after Verstappen was disciplined in Mexico City.

He didn’t share that feeling after Norris’s penalty in Austin and even brought telemetry data with him to his press conference after Sunday’s race to prove that Norris wouldn’t have made the corner in turn seven even if he wasn’t pushed off the road by the Dutchman. Unsurprisingly, Horner won’t appeal Verstappen’s penalty in the same way that McLaren did after the United States Grand Prix. Damon Hill shared on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast his thoughts on Horner’s public musings about Verstappen and his driving style.

He believes that Red Bull’s team principal should be more outspoken about Verstappen when he’s penalised for his overly aggressive driving. Damon Hill unhappy with Christian Horner’s public stance on Max VerstappenTalking about Horner’s approach, Hill said: “There’s never any attempt to publicly describe his driver in a way that other people would recognise. “It’s always a protective comment from Christian about Max.

READ MORE: What Christian Horner said before the Mexico City Grand Prix that leaves Sergio Perez’s future in doubt“So Max, it almost appears as though Max is free to do whatever he likes, his team will never criticise the way he drives and I think if you’re in a competition that’s probably fine to do publicly. “But really, there has to be a conversation, it’s the responsibility of the team to also contribute to the driver’s attitude. ”What Red Bull said to Max Verstappen on the team radio this season that left Martin Brundle ‘really worried’Every Formula 1 team does everything they can to protect their drivers whether they’re in the right or wrong.

However, there comes a point where that attitude can end up backfiring as Verstappen discovered at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Verstappen was intelligent enough to know that he wasn’t going to be able to win the race in Mexico and that both Ferraris and Norris were in a much stronger position than he was. By taking Norris out – and then holding him up for several laps – he allowed the two Ferrari drivers to open up enough of a gap to prevent Norris from taking another important victory and putting a further dent in his Drivers’ Championship lead.

Martin Brundle criticised Red Bull for how they spoke to Verstappen after his collision with Norris at the Austrian Grand Prix. Despite that incident costing both drivers the chance of victory, Verstappen ended up with more points at the appropriately named Red Bull Ring.