Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has labelled Red Bull's protest of George Russell's victory in Canada as "petty", "small" and "embarrassing".

His view is no doubt shared by many, especially as it took almost six hours before the result of the race could be officially declared.

Christian Horner has already revealed that on Friday his team had warned race director Rui Marques of potential gamesmanship as rivals sought to take advantage of Max Verstappen's penalty points predicament which left him on the precipice of a race ban.

When the Austrian team perceived Russell to be playing games with the Dutchman under the Safety Car, in went the protest, which was subsequently thrown out.

"First of all, it took team Red Bull Racing two hours before they launched the protest, so that was in their doing," Wolff told Sky Sports. "You know, honestly, it's so petty and so small.

"They've done it in Miami," he added. "Now they launched two protests... they took one back because it was ridiculous.

"They come up with some weird clauses, what they call clauses," he continued. "I guess the FIA needs to look at that because it's so far-fetched it was rejected.

"You know, 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."

As well as claiming that Russell was driving erratically behind the Safety Car, Red Bull insisted the Mercedes driver was more than the mandated ten car lengths behind it.

While, in their report, the stewards deemed that Russell was simply complying with the timing delta appearing on his dash, no mention was made of the gap to the Safety Car.

"One of them they actually pulled as a protest, they didn't even follow it through because it was nonsense," said Wolff. "The second one took us five hours because I don't even know what you refer to as 'unsportsmanlike behaviour' or something.

"What is it all about?" asked the Austrian. "Who decides it? Because I'm 100% sure it's not Max, he's a racer. He would never go for a protest on such a trivial thing."

"No, absolutely not," Christian Horner told Sky Sports when asked if he regretted the protest. "It's a team's right to do so.

"We saw something we didn't think was quite right," he added. "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."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by givememychoice, 19/06/2025 9:26

"I mean its all theatrical politics.
My view would be that no, Toto, NO, that was so not right, but that they all embarrass themselves from time to time.
I think most sensible people would see that George was trying to "get" Max, (Mercedes through George going on the radio instantly was surely as much about trying to influence officials). One can argue about whether he was brake checking/unsportsmanlike/dropped too far behind (probably yes), or if Max overtook George under the SC (definitely yes). The stewards looked at it and made the sensible decision to just let it be, as nobody gained an advantage.
Both Toto and Christian continually bleat about the other one doing wrong.
Or to misquote some up and coming pop combo, The Who, meet the merc boss, same as the red bull boss."

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2. Posted by Spindoctor, 19/06/2025 8:53

"@pavlo
Nope. Not me.
I may have had a little dig at VMax, but haven't commented in this thread about FIA."

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3. Posted by Pavlo, 18/06/2025 20:33

"@Editor - don’t exaggerate, every race final results are published hours after the finish, in Canada it would have taken around 5 hours anyway. If you prefer to blame RB instead of questioning why stewards anyway needed 5 hours - your choice.
@Superbird70 - problem is, interpretation of the rules stays in the head of (changing) stewards. 3 years ago it was unacceptable being more than 10 cars length behind the SC, now it’s totally tolerable, but we may only guess what the difference is. You may offer your interpretation, but when the sport uses interpretation instead of direct written rules, we get a problem."

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4. Posted by Superbird70, 18/06/2025 17:47

"Nothing probably happened because there was no contact. Unlike when Russell crashed out in Australia last year and Alonso was found to be at fault for driving in a 'potentially dangerous' manner.

Red Bull challenged a non-call, and were sent packing, again. It's not enough to just recite the rules, one does need to know what they mean and how they are to be interpreted. I hope Horner had his crayons out to provide to the stewards a true illustration of what happened."

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5. Posted by Editor, 18/06/2025 17:37

"Well Pavlo, the next time that we at Pitpass, and the rest of the media that waited, twiddling its collective thumbs for almost six hours for official confirmation of the result, we'll know where to come."

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6. Posted by Pavlo, 18/06/2025 17:24

"@Spindoctor: I don't know if it's you who disagree with what I wrote, but I will explain:
- "not a challenge to the decision" - stewards did not make any decision themselves, therefore there was nothing to challenge. Normally that should be "Noted" - "Reviewed" - "No further action".
- "not frivolous or incorrect" - George was visibly more than 10 cars distance, and visibly did brake, so RB had all grounds to suspect violation of the rules. So protest was legitimate.
- 30 minutes - explained below.
"

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7. Posted by Pavlo, 18/06/2025 17:02

"@Editor - I wrote below where I took 30 minutes. Please see publicly available "FIA Documents".
Doc 71 "Infringement - Car 10 - Safety Car Procedure" signed 20:32 local time (almost 5 hours after the finish). It's the last of 6 similar documents.
Doc 73 "Decision - Red Bull - Protest Against Car 63" signed 21:05 local time.
Doc 74 "Final Race Classification" signed 21:10.

So even if RB wouldn't protest, last of the decisions potentially impacting the race result (ok, not the first place, but still high places) would have been made just 33 (!) minutes earlier. And these were based on "Race Director report", not protest from any team.

This highlights important issue: stewards reviewed 6 SC infringements plus McLaren collision without any protest from competitors. All of the decisions made without inviting team or driver representatives. With Max clearly (!) overtaking Russell, it was just logical for stewards to review the case anyway. Which may have resulted in a penalty for Max. But submitting official protest RB just ensured that their representative would be there to voice an opinion."

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8. Posted by Spindoctor, 18/06/2025 15:10

"Max just needs to come to terms with the harsh reality that like Sir Lewis, he's no-longer undisputed 'top dog'. Unlike Lewis, he's still in what can be the 2nd fastest car, despite Mercedes recent improvements."

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9. Posted by Editor, 18/06/2025 12:47

"@ Pavlo

Re: the race outcome was delayed only 30 minutes because of this, which didn't matter at all.

The race started at 14:00 local time and ended at 15:32. The provisional result was issued at 16:25 while the final classification came at 21:10., so where you get the thirty minutes delay from God only knows."

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10. Posted by Pavlo, 18/06/2025 11:52

"@Superbird: but this was not "a challenge to the decision", and certainly not frivolous or incorrect, and the race outcome was delayed only 30 minutes because of this, which didn't matter at all.
"

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11. Posted by Pavlo, 18/06/2025 11:36

"I agree 100% with Horner here - it's the right of the team to protest, there is nothing wrong or embarrassing. Mercedes was also filing protests when they wanted.
The only thing which is embarrassing in this case is that stewards needed 5 hours to decide, but it's not fault of RB. In fact, stewards were anyway reviewing post-race overtakes and issued warnings not based on formal protest from RB, so we anyway were waiting 5 hours for final race classification, and it's not a fault of RB.

As I wrote before, they have sensors. The distance between George and SC as well as relative positions of Max vs. George were available for stewards in real time. There is a serious issue with stewarding, if 2 leading drivers clearly break the rules and stewards just do nothing, relying on competitors to protest.
The same final decision (not to penalize) should have been done within minutes and explicitly announced before the chequered flag, everyone would appreciate it and not protest anything."

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12. Posted by moomoo, 17/06/2025 19:57

"I think that gambling on a finish under safety Toto should've told Russell to hang back so Max gets the chequer and immediate DQ. Problem solved all round for the rest of the season...."

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13. Posted by Superbird70, 17/06/2025 19:35

"A number of sports allow challenges to decisions made on the field of play, and if upheld there is no penalty. If the challenge is frivolous or out right incorrect there can be a penalty. Is it time to think about actions to discourage these type of nuisance challenges (loss of points, pit box reassignment)? The official outcome of the race was delayed by 5 hours because of this."

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Red Bull's Montreal protest "embarrassing", says Wolff

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