Former team principal defends Red Bull's 'petty' protest: 'No gentlemen in F1'

At the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, after the Safety Car was called out on track because of the incident between the two McLaren drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Russell then slowed down behind the Safety Car, leading to Verstappen passing him momentarily. Steiner believes there was nothing to the maneouvre by the Briton.

"I think it was petty because I don't think it was a game from George, under safety car, the 10 car lengths and I don't think he was. I just saw the video, he wasn't brake testing him because he was not behind him. Obviously, Max then overshot and went past him but it wasn't a brake testing," he said on The Red Flags Podcast.

"If you look at the sport in general, to put this one in after the race and then they have to wait to confirm the results is quite..., for what it is, it's under Safety Car. It's not something, there was never a danger or anything in my opinion," he continued.

The former Haas team principal also argues that taking the victory away from Russell would have had consequences for F1. "But if they would have given a penalty for this and the race result would have changed, that would have been pretty bad for the sport, in my opinion. And therefore, sometimes you avoid to do these things."

After classifying the incident 'petty', Steiner explains that there will never be agreements not to challenge incidents like this in Formula 1.

"We always try to have in any sport gentlemen agreements. They just don't work because there are no gentlemen. If there would be gentlemen, they would work, but without gentlemen, how's a gentleman agreement work?" he said laughing.

Therefore, he explains he would have done the same as Red Bull did. GPblog could also reveal that for example, Max Verstappen was at peace with finishing second, and he would have not protested the result.

"No, I would take every advantage, I would play everything I could just to get the result. And then obviously, I think Red Bull tried to play it, and now they're told it was petty. Obviously, they don't care about that. because they tried something and it didn't work. But if they wouldn't try, maybe in turn it would be right, why didn't you try to do this?" Steiner concluded.

For Verstappen, getting a win would have meant seven more points in the standings. The Dutchman is currently 44 points behind Oscar Piastri in the standings.