Christian Horner has said Red Bull pre-emptively approached the FIA Race Director to watch out for rivals ‘goading’ him.

With Verstappen on 11 penalty points heading into the Canadian Grand Prix, the four-time F1 World Champion is just a single penalty point away from triggering an automatic race ban.

Christian Horner: Potential gamesmanship ‘inevitable’

Verstappen moved onto 11 penalty points by way of a contentious incident at the Spanish Grand Prix, while battling with George Russell.

The Mercedes driver had dived up the inside of the Red Bull into Turn 1, resulting in Verstappen running through the escape area to maintain his position. Feeling Verstappen risked a penalty for going off track and maintaining an advantage, he was told to give the place to Russell and, initially, appeared cooperative.

Releasing the throttle to let Russell go, Verstappen sped back up into the next corner and blocked Russell from turning in, causing contact between the two cars in the process. The stewards hit Verstappen with a costly 10-second time penalty and three penalty points as a consequence.

Russell and Verstappen then locked out the front row in Canada, but there were no fireworks moments throughout most of the race as the Red Bull driver proved unable to launch a full attack on the Mercedes.

But, with the race neutralised under a Safety Car in the closing laps following a clash between the two McLarens, Russell hit the brakes – a normal manoeuvre to maintain temperatures behind the Safety Car.

Verstappen appeared caught out by the suddenness of the braking, sailing past the Mercedes as Russell radioed into his race engineer to report that the Dutch driver had overtaken him under Safety Car conditions, while Verstappen got onto his race engineer to point out the sudden braking.

The stewards weren’t going to pay any attention to the incident, as later documentation proved, but the matter still ended up before them as Red Bull lodged two protests against Russell in the aftermath of the chequered flag. Neither protest was upheld, with Russell’s behaviour found to have been normal and reasonable.

One facet of Red Bull’s case was that Russell had displayed “unsportsmanlike behaviour” by taking to team radio to report Verstappen’s, however inadvertent, overtake.

During the period of time in which the protest cases were being held with the FIA stewards, Red Bull boss Christian Horner spoke to the media and revealed his team had raised concerns about rivals attempting to use gamesmanship to try to land Verstappen in trouble.

“It’s inevitable that there was going to be some potential gamesmanship,” said Horner.

“It’s something that we raised after the driver’s briefing with the Race Director [Rui Marques] just so that they were mindful of it as well because it’s clear that that kind of stuff goes on.

“But Max, I thought he’s been squeaky clean all weekend and drove a very good race.”

Sources have indicated a feeling that Red Bull’s post-race protests may have stemmed from a general paranoia that rivals would set out to try to entrap Verstappen in a scenario that could land him penalty points.

Being investigated for overtaking under the Safety Car could have resulted in such a scenario if the stewards had decided to investigate – Russell’s radio message made no difference in the assessment of the moment.

Horner confirmed that the approach to the Race Director had been made in light of comments made by Russell after qualifying: “We just said to [the Race Director] ‘Look, could they please keep an eye on it because there’s been obviously comments that have been raised in the media. Just please keep an eye on it’.”

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The comment in question, which appeared to be said in a light-hearted nature by Russell, saw the British driver laugh off the prospect of first-lap fireworks between himself and Verstappen as he said, “I mean, I’ve got a few more points on my license to play with. So, yeah, let’s see.”

Verstappen had been irked by the constant questioning regarding his penalty points situation, telling press conference host Tom Clarkson that, “I don’t need to hear it again,” as he was asked about his approach to racing Russell in light of being on the verge of a race ban.

“It’s really pissing me off. I mean, you were speaking about it on Thursday. It’s such a waste of time. It’s very childish. So, that’s why I also don’t want to say too much because it’s really annoying, this world that we live in.”

With Verstappen having made no attempt to point a finger of accusation at Russell as he spoke to Sky F1 after the chequered flag, the Dutch driver was seen walking up the paddock and chatting with Russell following the 45-minute hearing with the stewards.

Five hours and 38 minutes after the chequered flag, Russell’s victory was confirmed as Red Bull’s protests were turned away, and Horner explained that Verstappen had played no part in the decision to lodge protests in the first place.

“No, not at all,” he said, upon being asked if Verstappen had pushed for a protest.

“Max was talking to you guys [the media] and had no idea. It’s within the competitor’s right to raise a protest.

“It’s 2,000 euros per protest and we were surprised that they weren’t noted and sent to the stewards.

“So therefore you have the right as a competitor to do that and that’s what we’ve chosen to do, which is why Max and the guys are with the stewards now.”

It’s the second time this season Red Bull has lodged a protest involving Russell, whose relationship with Verstappen had become more tense late in 2024 following an incident in last year’s Qatar Grand Prix qualifying session.

In Miami earlier this year, Red Bull had protested against Russell going too quickly through a yellow flag zone, which was also not upheld by the stewards.

“It’s certainly not personal to George,” Horner said.

“I think it’s the way that the regulations are.

“The regulations are pretty binary, and pretty clear. So we put in a protest.”

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