Wolff was right about Red Bull Racing's 'pathetic' protest

If 2021 taught Red Bull Racing anything, it’s that every point can count in a championship. Perhaps that was the main reason for filing a protest. ‘Who knows, it might work.’ Yet, it also strongly felt like a personal vendetta against Mercedes, affecting all involved.

In the Netherlands, there quickly arose a sentiment that Russell was favoured by the stewards. As a Brit, he would escape a penalty, whereas Verstappen in a similar situation would have received one. This sentiment, understandable due to the many and sometimes unfairly harsh penalties for Verstappen, is, of course, not correct in this case.

Red Bull Racing must have known this before they filed the protest. They must have known their arguments for protesting would never hold, especially the argument that Russell was unsporting because he claimed over the team radio that Max Verstappen was passing him was ridiculous, not least because their own driver also accused Russell of an infraction over the team radio.

Mercedes’ other protest concerned Russell’s unnecessarily hard braking. According to Red Bull, this was unnecessary, as Russell knew the race would end behind the safety car anyway. Also, a spurious argument, of course, because the leader decides whether to warm up his brakes or not. This would never hold up in court.

One might say, ‘let Red Bull do their thing’, but that’s not possible in the current state of the FIA. Because a protest always means a debacle for Formula 1 as a sport. A protest means that hours after the race, the results are not official yet. Fans have long gone home or were even asleep in Europe. The next morning, it would then become clear what the official race result was.

Of course, that’s not Red Bull’s fault, but they are aware of the consequences of such a protest. If they still choose to do it, despite strong arguments against, then there's something to be said for Toto Wolff’s words that it was somewhat pathetic to proceed in this manner.