Red Bull spoke with FIA to protect Max Verstappen amid F1 ban threat

Christian Horner has revealed Red Bull spoke with the FIA ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix about concerns over Max Verstappen being targeted by his F1 rivals.

Verstappen is walking a race-ban tightrope now that he is just one penalty point away from triggering a suspension after he clashed with Mercedes’ George Russell in Spain.

The four-time F1 world champion managed to get through the weekend in Montreal without further trouble but must still navigate the Austrian Grand Prix before his next penalty points expire at the end of June.

It has now emerged that Red Bull reached out to FIA race director Rui Marques in a bid to try and protect Verstappen from “gamesmanship” given his precarious penalty points situation.

"I think you could hear from George's press comments [after qualifying]. You know, his objective was reasonably clear," Horner said.

"Look, I think that it is inevitable that there was going to be some potential gamesmanship.

"It's something that we raised after the drivers' briefing with the race director, 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 today.”

Asked what Red Bull had said to Marques, Horner replied: "We just said to him, 'Look, can you keep an eye on it? Because there have been comments that have been raised in the media, so please keep an eye on it’."

Red Bull fail in protest

Red Bull saw two protests about Russell’s driving behind the late-race Safety Car in Canada rejected.

Russell beat Verstappen to victory in Montreal but Red Bull felt Russell had broken the regulations on two counts and believed the Mercedes driver was intentionally trying to get the Dutchman penalised.

The stewards ultimately rejected both accusations following a lengthy investigation, with the final race result not being confirmed until more than five hours after the chequered flag.

Verstappen is now 43 points adrift of championship leader Oscar Piastri, and has closed to 21 points of Lando Norris.