Russell on track at Austria
Wolff slams "not real" protests amid Red Bull's claim in Canada
16:07, 27 Jun
Updated: 16:44, 27 Jun
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Toto Wolff gave a scathing review of the current state of protests in Formula 1, as some of them can step over the line.
The Mercedes team principal celebrated his driver George Russell's victory last time out at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Russell saw the chequered flag first in Canada but had to wait for confirmation, as the FIA was investigating Red Bull's claim that the British driver had driven erratically behind the Safety Car.
The governing body didn't see any infringement from Russell and he kept the win as Verstappen took second place in Montreal.
After first practice for this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, Wolff conceded it is legitimate to protest wrongdoing, but they can be too petty.
Toto Wolff feels some protests can be unnecessary
Protests can be "a long shot"
The Austrian told GPBlog and others: "I think that it's absolutely legitimate to protest. We are fighting for race wins and championships. If you have the opinion that what you've seen is not right, then you should protest. But there is some of these actions are just really not real.
"Protesting something that you call unsportsmanlike behaviour. A long shot, or you're protesting a car not leaving 10 car lengths between himself and the safety car, well, he still needs to respect the delta. There are things that, from my perspective, are to be protested or legit to protest, and others that are just a little bit of a long shot.
"Then you're waiting 2 hours until you actually protest because you need to figure out on what to base it for. You take one protest back suddenly, and then we all there five hours. Everybody misses planes, going home, and we end up with a result that was a little bit predictable. That's something that I thought was not necessary."
A good result for Mercedes in Austria would be a superb way to keep up the momentum after the win in Canada.
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