Red Bull’s protest failed, Norris got lucky, but the decision is causing controversy: Here’s the background to the turbulent evening in Canada
The FIA stewards had their hands full after the Canadian Grand Prix. The final race results took hours to be announced, but ultimately remained unchanged. So why was Red Bull’s protest rejected – and why is Lando Norris’ time penalty effectively meaningless?
The final stages of the Canadian race provided plenty of talking points, with the top five closely bunched together and Lando Norris colliding with his teammate Oscar Piastri. But the drama wasn’t over after the checkered flag, as Red Bull lodged an official protest.
The timing was reminiscent of the situation a few weeks ago in Miami: Christian Horner’s media appointment was postponed several times and only took place after the FIA documents on the protest had been published. This allowed Horner to comment immediately.
Red Bull’s argument: Heavy braking, unsportsmanlike radio messages
The Red Bull team boss made it clear that there were two main complaints: “We have submitted two protests to the stewards for them to look at. The first concerns the erratic driving behind the safety car, where George braked very heavily – obviously while looking in his mirror at Max. And the second clearly concerns the distance behind the safety car. It was at least three times the permitted distance.“
Red Bull couldn’t put it so bluntly in the official FIA documents, but believed that Russell was trying to trick Verstappen and provoke him into a penalty. Horner called it ‘gamesmanship’: ”I think it was foreseeable that there could be gamesmanship. We also brought this up with the race director at the drivers’ briefing so that he would keep an eye on it, because these things obviously happen.”
Both elements – the abrupt braking and what Red Bull considered unsportsmanlike behavior – were presented to the stewards. Stephen Knowles, Gianpiero Lambiase, and Max Verstappen appeared on behalf of Red Bull at a 45-minute hearing. The team presented telemetry data intended to show that Russell braked unnecessarily hard, as well as onboard footage showing Russell looking in his mirror before executing the maneuver. Red Bull considered this to be a trick: by looking in the mirror, Russell saw that Verstappen was close behind and then deliberately braked heavily to provoke a penalty for the Dutchman.
