Toto Wolff has slammed Crimson Bull’s late protest in opposition to George Russell on the Canadian Grand Prix as “petty” and “embarrassing.”
Russell, who began on pole, fended off the problem of Crimson Bull’s Max Verstappen behind him to win the Montreal race, claiming his fourth F1 win and Mercedes’s first victory of the season.
But round 90 minutes after the chequered flag, Crimson Bull launched a two-pronged protest in opposition to Russell for potential security automobile infringements. The stewards took no additional motion, although affirmation solely got here five-and-a-half hours after the tip of the race.
Talking on the world premiere of the F1 Film in New York, Mercedes F1 boss Wolff labelled the protest from Crimson Bull, led by arch rival Christian Horner, as “ridiculous.”
“To begin with, it took staff Crimson Bull Racing two hours earlier than they launched the protest, in order that was of their doing,” he informed Sky Sports activities Information. “You already know, actually, it is so petty and so small.
“They’ve executed it in Miami. Now they launched two protests. They took one again as a result of it was ridiculous.
“They provide you with some bizarre clauses, what they name clauses. I assume the FIA wants to have a look at that as a result of it is so farfetched it was rejected.
“You already know, you race, you win and also you lose on monitor. That was a good victory for us, like so many they’d prior to now. And it is simply embarrassing.”
Nonetheless, Wolff believed that Verstappen wouldn’t have been the one to pursue a protest.
“One among them they really pulled as a protest, they did not even comply with it via as a result of it was nonsense,” Wolff added.
“The second took us 5 hours as a result of I do not even know what you seek advice from as ‘unsportsmanlike behaviour’ or one thing.
“What’s all of it about? Who decides it? As a result of I am 100 per cent certain it isn’t Max, he is a racer.
“He would by no means go for a protest on such a trivial factor.”
Russell’s win has narrowed the hole to championship chief Oscar Piastri to 62 factors after 10 races. The following race is the Austrian Grand Prix on 27-29 June.
