Should Redbull apologize?

[Nitrodaze]

Redbull and Horner in particular openly criticized and accused Hamilton of intentionally causing the accident between Hamilton and Verstappen at Silverstone. Phrases like "A seven-times world champion should know better", "He took me out", "Celebration was disrespectful", "Hamilton was desperate" were used. In particular, Redbull appears to have insinuated that Hamilton caused the accident on purpose to take out Verstappen in order to close the points gap to Verstappen.


We have discussed this at length in this forum. And opinions are divided as some diehard individuals; mostly with a deep-seated dislike for Hamilton, have insisted this is the case. Fortunately, the objective side of the FIA and F1M; the stewards, do not see it that way. The majority of drivers; active and retired do not see it that way either. Some of the finest analysts of F1, such as Peter Windsor and raft of F1 YouTubers do not see it the Redbull way either.

Mercedes has responded by pointing out that Redbull's reaction was inappropriately below the belt as Toto Wolff puts it. Some media pundits have assessed it and found that the Redbull reaction would in effect cast a shadow of doubt on Hamilton's conduct going forward which may attract harsher penalties in any future incidents. But most damning is, the wider effect of the reaction may have caused the flurry of racial abuses to Hamilton that followed. The strong negative reaction that exploded on the internet and on social media platforms. Enough for some of the most responsible platforms to openly react to these abuses. The extent of these reactions traced back to a Redbull staff that was fired upon discovery of their abusive statements on social media.

My question here is, do Redbull and Horner see that some form of apology may be required for how they have reacted and how that has in some way influenced the hate reaction that we have come to see on social media feeding from it? Is Horner big enough to raise his hands and say "With hindsight, we should have handled this better"?

That said, we could also say that this is the norm. Every generation of F1 introduces something new to the game. Maybe, open raw reactions, regardless of how right or wrong it is, is the new norm. This certainly falls in line with reality TV, a taste of which we got to see of Haas on Netflix. In which case, we could simply put it down to unfiltered human reactions to dramatic events with huge consequences. Even so, the line should be drawn somewhere. After all, this is an international event with far-reaching influences.

Hence, all F1 personalities that stand before a camera have an obligation to display human decency and the finest qualities that all humans should aspire to. And being a potential proponent for racial hate, is certainly not that. Thus, an apology of some sought would be the decent thing to do in my opinion.