George Russell open to huge F1 change after Red Bull protest 'faff'

George Russell believes F1 teams should have to offer a larger deposit when launching a protest after the "faff" of his Canadian GP investigation.

In Montreal, Red Bull protested Russell's win after it felt he had braked behind the safety car on purpose to allow Max Verstappen to pass him and to get the Dutchman a penalty, whilst also inquiring about Russell falling more than 10 car lengths behind the safety car.

After a lengthy investigation, the stewards ultimately threw out Red Bull's protests, meaning Russell's victory stood, with the team forfeiting its €2,000 deposit as a result. 

The Mercedes driver felt that a bigger initial deposit could make teams think twice about launching spurious protests.

"Yeah, 100%," Russell told media including RacingNews365 when questioned about raising the deposit.

"When you look at the financial penalties for using swear words in the heat of the moment, or touching a rear wing, €2,000 for a team making nine-figure profits is not even going to touch the side.

"It is not going to be thought about, so yeah, potentially, if it was a six-figure sum to be put down, maybe they would think twice about it, and you do get your money back if you win a protest, so it is basically your own risk.

"Whereas, at the moment, €2,000 for a Formula 1 team is not even a consideration.

"It was nothing, and it all came from Red Bull, as opposed to Max, I don't think he was even aware of the protests.

"It was pretty clear that there was not going to be any penalty, and my personal view is that they wanted to go and be offensive to protect Max in case he got a penalty for going ahead of me during the safety car incident.

"My personal view is that it was just a bit of a faff and not really necessary."