Hungary’s second practice coughed up a scene straight out of the paddock’s blooper reel: Max Verstappen eased off-line at Turn 3, took both hands off the wheel, and flung a face towel out of his RB21. The stewards took a look, decided Red Bull had released the car in an unsafe condition, and issued… a warning. No penalty, no grid drop, just a nudge.
Verstappen, the reigning World Champion, told officials he’d ditched the towel because leaving it inside risked something far worse: fabric migrating toward the pedals. He slowed, kept clear of the racing line, and got rid of it. The towel, soft as it is, stayed on track and triggered an immediate inquiry.
The stewards bought the logic. Their verdict noted the cloth could’ve ended up in the footwell and interfered with control, making the release unsafe—but less severe than if a hard object had been left loose in the cockpit. Hence the slap on the wrist for the team.
Inside Red Bull, there’s acceptance that they got off lightly—and a touch of eyebrow-raise at the rationale. Steve Knowles, now acting Head of Sporting after Jonathan Wheatley’s move to Sauber, unpacked it on The Inside Track podcast. He admitted it was a “lenient” outcome and that any loose item in the cockpit is inherently risky, but conceded the stewards were setting a deterrent.
Knowles said he trawled Red Bull’s records for a precedent and came up empty. The idea of the towel working its way down into the footwell felt “a bit of a leap,” he suggested, yet in extreme circumstances it could have been dangerous. The warning, then, serves as a reminder to every garage: no floaters in the cockpit, ever.
In truth, the decision threads the needle. Verstappen’s on-the-fly fix avoided the worst-case scenario, the item wasn’t hazardous in itself, and the stewards signaled where the line is without rewriting the weekend. It’s also a neat early test for Knowles in his new role as Red Bull’s rules point man—calmly front-footing a quirky issue while the FIA quietly pins a notice to the door.
“Towel-gate” won’t echo far beyond Budapest, but the message will. Before the next run, mechanics everywhere will give each cockpit an extra sweep. And if a driver reaches for a face cloth on the grid from now on, expect a few nervous glances down by the pedals.
