Max Verstappen declined to say whether he supported Red Bull’s protests against George Russell following the last round in Canada.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff derided his rival’s attempt to strip Russell of victory as “petty”, “ridiculous” and “embarrassing.” He also suggested Verstappen, who finished second to Russell in Montreal, did not support them.Asked ahead of this weekend’s race whether he did, Verstappen refused to give any answer. “I think everything has been said about Montreal,” he said. “At least, I have nothing to add from that race.”
Red Bull originally brought two protests against Russell. It withdrew one, which related to a claim Russell repeatedly fell more than 10 car lengths behind the Safety Car, and persisted with another, which the stewards rejected. The team has protested Russell on three occasions so far this season, having done so previously in Miami, also without success.
Verstappen heads into this weekend’s race still at risk of triggering an automatic ban if he collects another penalty point on his licence. Asked whether he feels F1 has become excessively regulated he replied: “I’m not going comment on that. I cannot risk a penalty point.”
He gave a similar response when asked whether penalty points should only be issued for potentially dangerous incidents. The FIA’s penalty points guidelines do not specify penalty points for breaches of the rules regarding drivers’ comments.
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Verstappen’s comments which prompted Red Bull’s protests
| Lap: 68/70 VER: 2’05.276 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | After turn 10 The Safety Car is driving really slow, what is he doing? |
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| Verstappen | Russell slows and Verstappen briefly passes him before dropping behind again George suddenly just aggressively braked. |
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| Lambiase | Understood, thank you. We will check for any erratic driving. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 69/70 VER: 2’03.745 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | We can see that on our data stream as well, Max. Thank you for the info. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Russell drops back from the Safety Car, then accelerates That’s more than 10 car lengths also, there. |
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| Lambiase | Okay, we will check that as well, thank you. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Yeah, that incident with Russell now being shown on the feeds Max. So, pretty blatant. Just don’t fall for the gamesmanship, okay? Thank you. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Safety Car through the pit lane, Max. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 70/70 VER: 2’06.683 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Russell drops back from the Safety Car, then accelerates Again, more than 10 car lengths, what is he doing? |
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| Lambiase | Thank you. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Way more than 10, look at this! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Yes, thank you Max. We’ll have a look. Cheers mate. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Verstappen’s penalty points
| Date | Event | Session | Infringement | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30/6/2024 | Austrian Grand Prix | Grand prix | ‘Collision between Car 1 and Car 4 in turn 3.’ | 2 |
| 27/10/2024 | Mexican Grand Prix | Grand prix | ‘Forcing another driver off the track.’ | 2 |
| 2/11/2024 | Brazilian Grand Prix | Sprint race | ‘The driver was above the minimum time at VSC End.’ | 1 |
| 1/12/2024 | Qatar Grand Prix | Qualifying | ‘Car 1 drove unnecessarily slowly on a cool down lap.’ | 1 |
| 8/12/2024 | Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | Grand prix | ‘Car 1 caused a collision with Car 81 in turn 1.’ | 2 |
| 1/6/2025 | Spanish Grand Prix | Grand prix | ‘Car 1 collided with Car 63 at turn 5.’ | 3 |
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2025 Canadian Grand Prix
- Don’t boo Piastri, Norris tells British Grand Prix fans
- Fine teams for “long shot” protests like Red Bull’s in Canada, says Wolff
- Verstappen refuses to say whether he supported Red Bull’s latest Russell protests
- No change to McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’ after Canadian GP collision – Piastri
- The driver and car explanations for how Piastri turned the tables on Norris
Jere (@jerejj)
26th June 2025, 19:20
For that matter, Albon & Lawson touched on the published guidelines without receiving a single penalty point.
Edvaldo
26th June 2025, 19:41
The driver is in the position to note everything unusual around them and that’s what he did.
The team going ahead and protesting it, to me it seems like a gesture to show him they will go to whatever lengths necessary to cather to his needs and keep him, as the talks about him leaving get stronger by the day, because the incident itself was no big deal, nothing to even be noted by the race direction.
baasbas
26th June 2025, 20:26
@Edvaldo
A protest to cater to their driver? That seems too far fetched for me.
A protest to preempt a penalty for ‘overtaking under SC’ with a very slim chance even of promoting a place seems more likely imho
Edvaldo
26th June 2025, 21:52
Imagine that Max pushes some guy off the track and the guy overtakes him off the track and he demands the driver to give him the position back even if he obviously pushed the guy off the track first.
The team would back him fully to show him they’re his team and only his, that kind of stuff.
Even they are realizing Max may leave and obviously, if they can delay that as much as possible by any means necessary, they will.
baasbas
27th June 2025, 7:46
@Edvaldo
That is saying the same thing but with different words. And I think you’re wrong. They’re not there because a driver wants to race.
jj0
26th June 2025, 22:59
Headline: Max refuses to say.
Article: Max declined to say
Article: except for the two lines above, rehash of previous articles
Mayrton
27th June 2025, 7:09
Seems the only sensible approach with nowadays blood thirsty media. It literally doesn’t add any value asking these kind of questions, since we are no longer in high school. Overall the issue is as dull as one can imagine and on top of that, it is clear what the agenda behind the question is.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
27th June 2025, 9:18
I don’t agree. I expected Verstappen to say he did support the protest, given what I thought was a fairly transparent attempt by Toto Wolff to drive a wedge between him and his team. I thought that would get the usual ‘we win as a team, we lose as a team’ script.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
27th June 2025, 9:46
He ‘literally’ moans about everything. Lord knows why he watches F1, must be a nightmare
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
27th June 2025, 11:11
I think Mayrton is correct, Toto is clearly playing stupid games, if Max was really leaning towards Mercedes he would agree more with his own team in order to conceal. I think it really is more about the ‘media’ looking to create drama or the appearance of the narrative about which Max is leaving RBR for Mercedes, which has been on the menu for over a year now. And its pretty obvious Max is only going to Merc if Merc want to win and have the best power unit. If Merc are going to keep playing these games where they offer new investors wins (see McLaren after their purchase), then I doubt Max is interested in playing that particular part.
I don’t really think the menu has changed much since the ‘ground effects era’. Its all about Max and then some, ditching Lewis, and pushing drama for NetFlix. Next year will be different, and we will be able to appreciate the different ways the media are signaling as to new narrative designs and programming for the shareholders/marketing gurus. It will be interesting to see I suppose.
The only thing I can say for sure about next year, is that the chance that Mercedes, or whomever has the best power unit –wins consistently, will not really be a thing, and the impetus will be on promoting smaller teams by happenstance who just happen to win through all the ‘chaos’ of the new formula. Guys like Aston, the bitcoin chicanes, Alpine etc.
The new year will offer ‘chaos’, uncertainty, and opportunities for guys like Toto/F1 to promote teams that might be heading towards different conservatorship/investor buy ins. At the end of the day all narratives drive towards the sustainable plot of investor capitol accumulation. Everything else is derivative and most likely not as it is advertised.
I still root for Hamilton, even though like in the plot of Rollerball, he’s on his way out, he will still try. And there is still silverstone, still commercial interest to feature him, especially of him over his teammate. I think for the rest of this year, his best opportunities will be on sprint weekends when his counterpart has less time to setup and adapt, that seems to be his best advantage over other F1 drivers atm.
He Man
27th June 2025, 7:18
To be fair, he’s deserved every penalty point he’s got so far.
baasbas
27th June 2025, 7:51
@He Man
I don’t agree. The penalty for driving slow with Russell was a complete stitch up for instance
On the other hand for the deliberate wheel bump there should be a higher penalty so maybe it works out to be the same in the end. But still