Red Bull's Christian Horner says no ill-feeling over FIA outlawing of RB8 floor 'holes'

The FIA was forced to issue a verdict on the holes ahead of the rear wheels on the RB8 following complaints from rival teams that the concept contravened the rules.

That edict meant the holes can no longer be used by Red Bull Racing, but Horner said he was happy that the matter had been sorted out without the need for a protest.

Speaking in reaction to anger from Mark Webber that people had suggested the team's victories in Bahrain and Monaco with the holes had been achieved with an 'illegal' car, Horner said: "I think Mark's comments are understandable. He won Monaco fair and square. The car complied with the rules, it complied with scrutineering. The teams have a right to protest if they felt it contravened in any way and no team chose to do that.

"Since then there's been a bit of debate about what's a hole and what's a boundaried surface and so on, and then there was a clarification as we expected. It's the right way to have dealt with the issue.

"In terms of the effect it will have on car performance, firstly we didn't plan to run it here [in Canada] anyway, plus it doesn't only affect Red Bull Racing. There were a couple of other cars that were running similar concepts."

When asked why the team risked the chance of a protest if the performance benefit was so negligible, Horner said: "We felt it was completely legal, and the technical delegate agreed with that prior to the event. It's like a lot of areas on a lot of cars; regulations are open to interpretation.

"We discussed it with the FIA, and the FIA were happy with it, and then has sought to further clarify the position, which has resulted in effectively that configuration not being permitted moving forward.

"We discussed it over the Monaco weekend. It was dealt with by Charlie [Whiting] in the right and proper manner."