The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, has called Red Bull’s protest “petty” and “embarrassing” after George Russell beat the reigning world champion, Max Verstappen, at Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Red Bull challenged Russell’s victory in Montreal for driving erratically and committing unsportsmanlike conduct behind the safety car, a claim rejected by the stewards. It was the second time they had launched a protest against the Mercedes driver this season after a claim he had failed to slow sufficiently under yellow flags in Miami.
On Sky Sports at the launch of the new F1 movie in New York, Wolff said: “It took Red Bull Racing two hours before they launched the protest, so that was their doing. Honestly, it’s so petty and so small. They come up with some weird clauses, what they call clauses.
“I guess the FIA needs to look at that because it’s so far-fetched it was rejected. You race, you win and you lose on track. That was a fair victory for us, like so many they had in the past. And it’s just embarrassing.”
Russell’s win in Montreal was a first of the season for Mercedes and the protest represented the latest in a series of controversies involving him and the four‑time world champion.
At the same event, the Red Bull chief, Christian Horner, insisted he had no regrets about the decision to go to the stewards. He said: “It’s a team’s right to do so. We saw something we didn’t think was quite right.
“You have the ability to put it in front of the stewards and so that’s what we chose to do. Absolutely no regrets in that.”
