Red Bull has revealed that it spoke to Formula 1 race director Rui Marques ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix to express fears that rivals would try to goad Max Verstappen into a penalty that could earn him a race ban.
With Verstappen just one penalty point away on his licence from being forced to sit out a race, the risk of him being tricked into doing something that breached the rules was very real.
And that is exactly why Red Bull says it approached Marques following Friday night’s drivers’ briefing in Montreal.
It urged him to be mindful of any tricks that rivals could play – with its suspicions ultimately fuelling its failed protest against George Russell for an incident behind the safety car late on.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner explained that the approach to Marques was to make him mindful that situations could crop up where Verstappen was being put in a trickier spot than usual by others.
“I think that it was inevitable that there was going to be some potential gamesmanship,” explained Horner.
Why Red Bull's protest was rejected
“It's something that we raised after the driver's briefing with the race director, just so that they [the FIA] were mindful of it as well, because it was clear that that kind of stuff goes on.
"But Max, I thought he's been squeaky clean all weekend and drove a very good race.”
Horner explained that the prompt for speaking to Marques was that rival drivers had been talking up the prospect of Verstappen’s race ban being triggered in Montreal.
Horner added: “We just said to him [Marques]: ‘Look, could they please keep an eye on it because there's been obviously comments have been raised in the media.”
This remark was obviously aimed at comments that Russell had made - whose collision with Verstappen in Spain had triggered the extra points that left the reigning champion so close to suspension.
Speaking on Thursday about how he expected Verstappen's situation to impact his approach to racing, the Mercedes driver had said: “Probably knowing him as I do, he will probably drive even more aggressively so he can have a weekend off at home. I don’t know…but let’s hope so.”
Russell further revved up Red Bull after qualifying in Canada when, in his post pole position television interview, he talked of being able to race harder than Verstappen because of the licence situation.
“I mean, I’ve got a few more points on my licence to play with…” he smiled.
It was those comments, which triggered subsequent questions in a press conference that annoyed Verstappen, that left Red Bull convinced Russell had acted deliberately behind the safety car to try to catch his rival out.
This is what triggered Red Bull’s protest, even though the FIA stewards ultimately ruled that there was no evidence to suggest that Russell had been unsportsmanlike.
Horner said: “I think you could hear from George's press comments. His objective was reasonably clear. I don't think there were any surprises with that.”
Red Bull’s two-pronged protest against Russell is the second time that it has taken such action against him this year – following a complaint at the Miami Grand Prix about him not slowing enough for yellow flags. This was again rejected by the FIA.
But while there is a history of flashpoints between Russell and Verstappen, Horner insists that the protests are not the result of a vendetta against him.
“It's certainly not personal to George,” he said. “The way that the regulations are, the regulations are pretty binary, pretty clear, so we put in a protest.
“The regulations are very clear about the safety car. If you remember, Checo [Perez] back in Singapore in ‘22 got two penalties for it. So there were very clear precedents.”
