Red Bull boss slams pointless Mercedes team protest
Nov.20 - Red Bull has dismissed Mercedes' "stupid" protest about Max Verstappen's driving in Brazil.
The intensity of the 2021 championship battle just keeps getting hotter as the finale looms, and it hadn't even reached the peak when the stewards in Qatar rejected Mercedes' push for a retrospective penalty for Verstappen.
"Everything came to nothing, as we expected," Dr Helmut Marko told Servus TV.
"It was clear that it was pointless and stupid."
But the official complaint about Verstappen's defensive driving in turn 4 against Hamilton was also distracting for the energy drink owned team, the top Austrian official declared.
"It was tedious for the team because engineers who are supposed to make the car faster have to prepare documents instead," Marko, 78, charged.
Mercedes' Toto Wolff said he was also not surprised that the stewards rejected the push, insisting it was more about triggering a "discussion" about permissible racing tactics.
However, championship leader Verstappen himself thinks it was more vindictive than that.
"As I understand it, they said in Brazil that from now on they will complain about everything - even some tape that is hanging down from the car," he said.
"So this was just expected."
The Dutchman also rejects the comparison between the latest incident in Brazil and the clash between himself and Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone.
"The crucial difference is that he continued and won the race in Silverstone and I was stuck in the tyre wall," said Verstappen. "But as I said, they were mainly angry about being disqualified.
"If I had attacked Lewis from the outside in the same situation, the result would have been identical. We're not in kindergarten, we both know that.
"I'm certainly not making life easy for him when it comes to the title," he insisted.
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MB was, indeed, a bit prattish about a stewards call, rather like RB blathering on about wings. Boys will be boys.
It's all part of the circus show ROR. Team principals see this charade as necessary (especially this season), to extract every last tiny advantage they can squeeze out of any situation.
They will challenge every minute change in a rival's improved performance. From an engine replacement, or rear wing angle to a driver's new helmet!! They will back their guy to the hilt, while decrying their opponent's antics - on or off the track!
This is done to maintain pressure, however subtle, and keep their opponents distracted. If either Toto or Christian can taunt the other into spending time deflecting accusations of cheating, then he's not spending that time on race strategy or setups or any of the thousand things they need to concentrate on, come race weekend.
I expect they might even escalate matters as the season nears a climax. There are huge matters at stake here, and that will lead to more intensely stressful drama in the few remaining races.
Who would want either of those guys jobs at the moment?
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