Wolff: Red Bull Racing Canadian GP protest is petty

George Russell was leading the Canadian Grand Prix with Max Verstappen chasing when a Safety Car came out towards the end of the race after McLaren driver Lando Norris crashed into his teammate Oscar Piastri.

At one point, Verstappen seemed to edge ahead of Russell but braked hard, then informed his team that the Mercedes driver was braking erratically. The latter said the Dutchman passed him under the Safety Car.

The race ended under the Safety Car with Russell winning and Verstappen following home in second, but Red Bull Racing lodged a protest after the race, accusing the Briton of driving erratically.

Eventually, the stewards dismissed the protest, and Russell kept his win, but Wolff was not amused by what Red Bull Racing did; he said: "Well, first of all it took Red Bull Racing two hours before they lodged the protest.

"That was their doing. Honestly, it’s so petty and so small. They did it in Miami. Now they launched two protests, they took one back because it was ridiculous. They come up with weirdo ISC clauses, sporting code 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. It’s just embarrassing.

"One, they actually pulled as a protest, not even following it though, because it was nonsense," the Austrian went on. "The second one took us five hours there because I don’t even know what they referred to as unsportsmanlike behaviour.

"What is it all about? Why do you do that? Who decides it? I am 100% sure it’s not Max. He’s a racer, and he wouldn’t go for a protest on such a trivial thing," Wolff concluded.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner revealed that his team have pointed out to the race director at the Canadian Grand Prix that Verstappen's rivals may try to provoke the reigning Formula 1 champion under pressure, and push him into an error, as he is one penalty point away from a race ban following his incident with Russell during the Spanish Grand Prix when he drove into the #63 Mercedes.

However, Horner insisted there was nothing wrong with the protest, and when asked whether he regretted it, he responded: "No, absolutely not.

"I mean it's a team's right to do so," he added. "We saw something that we didn't think was quite right, and you have the ability to put it in front of the stewards.

"So that's what we chose to do. Absolutely no regrets in that," Horner concluded.

(Quotes by Sky Sports F1)