George Russell of Mercedes, Max Verstappen of Red Bull, and Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes were the three drivers to take the podium during the Canadian Grand Prix over the weekend. For Mercedes fans, this marked an exciting point of the season, as Russell recorded his first season win and Antonelli made history as the third youngest driver to get a top-three finish. Red Bull fans also had something to be excited about as a second-place finish helped keep Verstappen in championship contention. While F1 fans celebrated the race, tensions continued between Mercedes and Red Bull just a couple of weeks after a purposeful crash.
Red Bull has been dominant in F1 for the past several years, with Verstappen winning the last four World Drivers’ Championships in a row. The team hasn’t had the same success this year. Looking at the numbers, Verstappen has had two wins this year, one in Japan and the other in Italy. While that sounds like a major success, it’s harder to celebrate when he had seven by this time last year and eight the year before.
Despite not seeing the same number of wins, Verstappen is still ahead of most of the competition. The only drivers ahead of him are McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Verstappen sits in third with 155 points. Russell follows him in points, sitting at 136 so far this season. Tensions between Red Bull’s team and the top driver seem to be causing some problems on and off the track.
Tensions between the Red Bull and Mercedes top drivers started at in Barcelona. During the Spanish Grand Prix, several problems kept Verstappen a step behind. He was in the top three with Piastri and Norris; Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and Russell were both behind. Problems started surfacing after Russell tried to move around Verstappen, forcing him off the track. He was able to take back the position from Russell, but his team came over the radio telling him to give the spot up. That call, which wasn’t from the stewards, started Verstappen’s frustrations.
After some arguments with his team, Verstappen started slowing to give the spot to Russell. While he tried to move around the Red Bull, Verstappen hit the side of the Mercedes. This led to a penalty that pushed Verstappen to tenth and one point away from a one-race ban. After the collision in Barcelona, Verstappen did take ownership of his mistake. Before racing in Canada, the driver said he’d try to have a clean race in Montreal.
The race started well for both teams, with Russell getting the pole in qualifying and Verstappen sitting behind him in second. The top three spots stayed the same for most of the race, with both Mercedes on either side of Verstappen. The problems started just a few laps before the end of the race. Norris was trying to pass Piastri in hopes of taking his teammate’s spot in fourth place. When he made the move to go around Piastri just outside pit road, he hit the wall, taking his car out of the race entirely.
This happened on the 67th lap of 70 and forced a safety car to come out for the rest of the race. Unlike other motorsports like NASCAR, a late race safety car doesn’t mean the race goes into overtime. Instead, the positions stay the same. That meant the podium of Russell, Verstappen, and Antonelli stayed the same.
A close call between Russell and Verstappen had the Red Bull team calling for a penalty against the Mercedes driver. During the late race safety car, Russell suddenly braked heavily, falling ten lengths behind. This caused Verstappen to move momentarily into the lead to avoid hitting the Mercedes. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner led the protest against Russell’s win. One reason was due to what he claims was erratic driving behind the safety car, pointing to the heavy braking. The second is that Russell was too far behind the safety car. Seven claims were made in total.
Team leaders and the drivers went in front of the stewards after the race to make their complaints. The appeal was thrown out about five and a half hours after the end of the race.
Verstappen and Russell have had a trying few weeks racing against each other. While many race fans agree that Verstappen’s penalty in Barcelona was warranted, it’s harder to explain why Russell’s driving wasn’t under more investigation in Canada. It did seem that Russell was braking excessively while following the safety car. Another complaint from Red Bull was the message Russell had over the radio. Russell had made the claim that Verstappen was trying to overtake him, which Red Bull said was unsportsmanlike and far from the truth. In the end, those arguments don’t matter as Russell now celebrates his first season win.
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