{"id":199170,"date":"2025-06-20T06:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T06:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/199170\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T06:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T06:33:11","slug":"wolffs-objective-is-clear-in-slating-red-bull-but-sparing-verstappen-%c2%b7-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/199170\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolff’s objective is clear in slating Red Bull but sparing Verstappen \u00b7 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toto Wolff\u2019s unwillingness to criticise Max Verstappen<\/a> is being tested to its limit.<\/p>\n

In little more than a month, Verstappen has been involved in no fewer than three post-race protests<\/a> against Wolff\u2019s driver George Russell<\/a> \u2013 and collided with him during the Spanish Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Wolff has reacted carefully, slating the Red Bull team but sparing Verstappen from direct criticism. It\u2019s not hard to imagine what\u2019s behind this.<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s current Mercedes deal expires at the end of this season and Verstappen is an obvious target for the team. Wolff indicated as much last year<\/a>: \u201c2026 is our main year where lots of things change and I think it could be quite attractive to drive with us. But whether it\u2019s Max and whether he can get out of his contract, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen is contracted to Red Bull until 2028, but as Wolff observed: \u201cIf a driver doesn\u2019t want to stay somewhere, it\u2019s very difficult to keep a driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolff has missed a chance to sign Verstappen once before and does not want to say anything which might risk putting him off. He knows who he\u2019s preparing his message for \u2013 and how carefully it must be crafted.<\/p>\n

Any vaguely adverse comment is at risk of being misleadingly regurgitated out of context on social media and picked up by Verstappen. As was the case when he took McLaren\u2019s Zak Brown to task over a six-month-old misquote<\/a> in Las Vegas last year.<\/p>\n

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Therefore, Wolff is not about to come down hard on Verstappen even for provoking contact with one of his cars. \u201cI don\u2019t even know what happened because I just heard that Max was told to let George pass and for me it looked odd that he didn\u2019t make it proper out of turn four,\u201d he prevaricated in Catalunya.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/a>Report: Horner \u201cdisappointed\u201d by Wolff\u2019s claim Verstappen committed a \u201ctactical foul\u201d on Hamilton<\/a><\/strong>\u201cSo I need to see the whole situation, but if it was road rage, then it\u2019s not good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolff\u2019s assessment of Verstappen\u2019s dodgier moves hasn\u2019t always been this equivocal. When Verstappen took Hamilton out at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix he called it out as a \u201ctactical foul\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Spain he chose softer words for a move that was more blatant if less destructive. But four years ago Wolff already had a multiple champion driving for him; today he\u2019s courting one.<\/p>\n

Following the latest skirmish between the two drivers in Canada, Wolff made it clear he blamed Red Bull alone for the post-race protests directed at Russell. \u201cI\u2019m 100% sure it\u2019s not Max,\u201d said Wolff<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s a racer. He would never go for a protest on such a trivial thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether Verstappen supported Red Bull\u2019s attempt to get a penalty for Russell, and therefore secure his fourth victory of the season, is a matter of conjecture. Verstappen drew Red Bull\u2019s attention to both aspects of Russell\u2019s driving upon which they later lodged protests in Canada. The same was true earlier this year in Miami. Between his comments in the car and his post-race comments to Sky, Verstappen offered different explanations for Russell\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

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Wolff knows from past experience that if a driver doesn\u2019t support a protest they are likely to make their feelings known. In 2016 Mercedes lodged a protest over a move Verstappen made on Hamilton, accusing the Red Bull driver of \u201c[driving] erratically and in a dangerous manner, forcing car 44 [Lewis Hamilton] to take evasive action.\u201d But Wolff\u2019s driver was not impressed.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/a>Report: Mercedes withdraws Verstappen protest which Hamilton didn\u2019t support<\/a><\/strong>\u201cThere is no protest from either myself or Mercedes.\u201d Hamilton initially announced in a social media post. \u201cOne idiot said we have but it\u2019s not true. Max drove well, end of. We move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

After learning his team had indeed protested Verstappen, Hamilton deleted his original message and replaced it with one which said<\/a>: \u201cThere is no protest from myself. Just heard the team had but I told them it is not what we do. We are [constructors\u2019] champions, we move on. End of!\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps Verstappen had similar words with Red Bull which led them to withdraw one of its two protests against Russell on Sunday. The team dropped its claim the Mercedes driver violated the rules by dropping more than 10 car lengths behind the Safety Car. <\/p>\n

However this was a straightforward matter of rules compliance which was never likely to result in a penalty for Russell. There was no doubt he was allowed to drop back from the Safety Car when he did. Red Bull\u2019s other protest was a question of interpretation which could have gone either way.<\/p>\n

But whether or not Verstappen was pushing for a penalty won\u2019t affect his value to Mercedes. Even if he turns up in Austria and makes it clear Red Bull\u2019s protest had his full backing, Wolff will find some way to smooth it over. Whether it pays off in the end is another matter.<\/p>\n

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2025 Canadian Grand Prix
\nBrowse all 2025 Canadian Grand Prix articles<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toto Wolff\u2019s unwillingness to criticise Max Verstappen is being tested to its limit. In little more than a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[74900,4199,707,4200,9824,1073,79,14319,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-199170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-2025-canadian-grand-prix","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-george-russell","13":"tag-max-verstappen","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-toto-wolff","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114714299890882496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}