displaying unsportsmanlike behaviour by complaining that Car 1 had overtaken under Safety Car conditions.
Red Bull saying that it’s unsportsmanlike to complain about rule-breaking when Verstappen (and everyone else) does it all the time. It’s so hypocritical. I do get annoyed with them and find it really childish how much everyone runs to mummy whenever they feel their opponent breaks the rules. That’s just how F1 is now though, and calling Russell out for it when Verstappen did the same thing in the same incident is another level of petty.
(Having said all that, it was so refreshing for Norris to admit his mistake immediately. I genuinely expected him to blame Piastri)
As much as I dislike Verstappen and think it’s his fault for driving so close under safety car, I think this is the best result. Any time penalty would have probably dropped him out of the points which isn’t fair for such a small infraction. Same for Russell
It is a game: When Russel nearly crashed into Verstappen because Verstappen was driving slow during an out-lap and Russel increased speed in his out-lap, Russel acted up in the stewards room with the end-result being a penalty for Verstappen. Verstappen later said he had never experienced such behavior of a fellow driver in the stewards room and he blamed Russel for his penalty.
Yesterday’s protest was just a lame attempt by RedBull to show the inconsistency in stewarding. Whether they succeeded and whether it is hypocritical does not matter. They are trying to influence the stewards to decide more favorable for RB in future events.
George is fine to play games. Red Bull is fine to lean on him in return.
George probably needs to try harder if he’s going to get Max though. Not sure if he expected flesh and blood stewards to fall for that, or if he was trying to get Max to flip a switch and go full Nikita.
I like that Russell was switched on until the end.
