Greater Noida: Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner on Sunday supported Sebastian Vettel's unusual doughnut celebration after winning the Indian Grand Prix, saying showing emotions was good for the sport.
Vettel, however, was later reprimanded for not proceeding directly from the circuit and the team was fined 25,000 euros.
The Red Bull driver sealed his fourth straight world title and celebrated that by doing a doughnut with his winning RB09 and followed that by bowing his head at the BIC, jumping to top of the car and waving towards the crowd.
After three reprimands a driver is handed a 10-place grid penalty.
"He'll get his fingers or knuckles rapped for it. It will be disappointing if after winning the world championship (he's rapped). Showing exuberance in front of the crowd is good for the sport," Horner had said after the race.
As Red Bull also sealed its fourth straight team championship title, Horner said it was not possible without Vettel even as the whole team worked hard for it.
"It's all about the team. You need a great team, great drivers, the show without Sebastian, of course we'd not have won four consecutive world championships," he said.
Horner said Vettel will be remembered as a legend.
"He is now one of the all-time greats. It needs everything to work in harmony. You can have the best driver or the best designer in the world but if you don't work as a team, it will never work. Sebastian has raised the bar continuously at only 26, four-time world championship, he has not achieved these results by accident," he said.
Horner said it was fantastic to watch Vettel working his way through the traffic to lead. Vettel changed his tyre strategy immediately after the five red lights went off as he opted medium from soft after two laps. He joined the race in the 17th place and grabbed the lead in lap 29.
"Sebastian knew today that the stop was going to be aggressive and he would come out from the back of the herd and go through the traffic and he'd have to be decisive in the way he did that and he did that. He knew that he had to restrict the gap with the leader to under 22 seconds.
"His passing and the execution in which he managed that was phenomenal, he actually gained on the leader while going through the traffic, which was quite, quite remarkable," he said.
The most successful Team principal though felt bad for Mark Webber, who retired due to a gearbox problem.
"There is no reason for it, just bad luck for us. Mark was driving a strong race, would have been second. Disappointing to see a DNF for Mark," he said.
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