New Red Bull rules man’s ‘bit of a leap’ claim in Verstappen’s ‘towel gate’

Red Bull’s new rules man Steve Knowles claims the footwell argument in Max Verstappen’s ‘towel gate’ incident was probably a bit of a leap, but Red Bull still escaped with only a warning.

Verstappen had a bizarre incident in second practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix when the Red Bull driver found a towel in the cockpit of his RB21 and threw it out of the car.

Red Bull received only a warning for ‘towel gate’

Out on track in FP2, Verstappen pulled off the racing line at Turn 3, and driving slowly, took both hands from the steering wheel to fish for the cloth to toss it out of the car.

Although Verstappen was able to discard the towel, it remained on the track and the incident was referred immediately to the FIA race stewards, who investigated it as a potential example of an unsafe release.

Verstappen explained to the stewards that throwing the towel out of the car was safer than driving back to the pit lane as it may have got stuck near his pedals.

“It was just a towel you normally wipe your face with when you come back in, so it was still in the car when I went out,” said the reigning World Champion.

“Instead of it potentially flying in between my feet, which was the dangerous part, I drove off line and got rid of it in the safest way possible, so I think the stewards understand.”

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The stewards bought into Verstappen’s argument. Red Bull were only warned as they declared there were mitigating circumstances – it was a cloth, not a hard object.

“The driver explained that while in the garage, the face towel had slipped from his lap to the side of the seat and the team was unaware that it remained in the cockpit,” read the FIA stewards’ verdict.

“When the driver realised it was there, he moved to the far right of the track and attempted to throw it as far away from the car and the track as possible.

“The stewards determine that the towel had the potential to have become lodged in the footwell and to interfere with the driver’s ability to fully control the car and that therefore the car was released in an unsafe condition.

“The stewards consider this case to be distinguishable from a case where a hard (and therefore potentially dangerous) object is left in the cockpit and to be less severe than such a case. Hence a warning to the team is imposed.”

Red Bull’s acting Head of Sporting, Knowles, who replaced Jonathan Wheatley as Red Bull’s rules man when the long-time sporting director left for Sauber, shared his thoughts on what Matt Majendie on The Inside Track podcast dubbed ‘towel gate’.

Acknowledging it was a “lenient” outcome, especially as having anything loose in the cockpit could create a dangerous situation, he felt the footwell argument was taking it a bit far but the stewards have to set a precedent.

“I was desperately going back to our records to find something similar,” Knowles said. “And yeah, no luck.

“You think about what the sport and the stewards are trying to do with these penalties. First and foremost is to act as a deterrent for anything that you should not be doing going forward.

“And it is fair to say that if you ever send the car from the garage and anything loose in the cockpit, it’s potentially dangerous.

“And I guess it’s a bit of a leap to say that, ‘you know, the towel could have made its way down into the footwell and maybe obstructed the pedal or something’.

“But in the extreme, it could have been dangerous.

“I think it’s probably fair for them to issue that lenient but still minor warning, so that it’s a reminder for everybody else that you need to be careful not to do that. And the teams have a responsibility to make sure that the cockpits are free of anything, any floating items.”

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