The Mercedes F1 team principal, Toto Wolff, has made his feelings very clear on Red Bull’s attempts to overturn George Russell’s victory at the Canadian Grand Prix

Mercedes F1 chief Toto Wolff(Image: Sky Sports)

Toto Wolff has labelled Red Bull “petty” and “embarrassing” after their protest against George Russell’s victory at the Canadian Grand Prix. The Mercedes boss took aim on Monday night, having been left to simmer following the fallout from Sunday’s race.

Red Bull challenged Russell’s victory in Montreal for both driving erratically and committing unsportsmanlike conduct behind the safety car. The claims were eventually rejected by the stewards.

But it was the second time they have launched a protest against the Mercedes driver this season. Back in Miami earlier in the campaign, they claimed he had failed to slow sufficiently under yellow flags.

Mercedes principal Wolff, speaking to Sky Sports at the launch of the new F1 movie in New York, made his feelings crystal clear about the latest protest. He said: “First of all, it took team Red Bull Racing two hours before they launched the protest, so that was in their doing.

“You know, honestly, it’s so petty and so small. They’ve done it in Miami. Now they launched two protests. They took one back because it was ridiculous.

“They come up with some weird clauses, what they call clauses. I guess the FIA needs to look at that because it’s so farfetched 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.”

Asked if Red Bull’s protests should have been dismissed quicker, Wolff added: “One of them they actually pulled as a protest, they didn’t even follow it through because it was nonsense.

“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? Who decides it? Because I’m 100 per cent sure it’s not Max, he’s a racer.

“He would never go for a protest on such a trivial thing.”

Russell’s win in Montreal was a first of the season for Mercedes and the protest represented the latest in a series of controversies involving he and four-time world champion Verstappen.

However speaking at the same event, Red Bull boss Christian Horner insisted he had no regrets about the decision to go to the stewards. Horner said: “No, absolutely not. I mean, it’s a team’s right to do so. You know, we saw something we didn’t think was quite right.

“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.”