ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Mercedes F1 driver George Russell claims Red Bull’s Max Verstappen threatened to crash into him and “put you on your f***ing head in the wall” after their stewards’ hearing ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix and that “people have been bullied by Max for years now.”
Four-time world champion Verstappen received a one-place grid penalty in Qatar last week after Russell claimed the Red Bull driver deliberately drove slowly in front of him during qualifying. The penalty dropped Verstappen behind Russell, who was promoted to pole position.
While Verstappen won the race, he said afterwards that he had “lost all respect” for Russell and he had “never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard” in a meeting with the stewards.
But speaking to select media on Thursday, including The Athleticahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Russell responded publicly for the first time to Verstappen’s comments.
“I find it all quite ironic, seeing as Saturday night he said he was going to purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and ‘put me on my f***ing head in the wall,’” Russell said. “So to question somebody’s integrity as a person while saying comments like that the day before, I find, is very ironic, and I’m not going to sit here and accept it.
“People have been bullied by Max for years now, and you can’t question his driving abilities. But he cannot deal with adversity. Whenever anything has gone against him — Jeddah ’21, Brazil ’21 — he lashes out. Budapest this year, the very first race the car wasn’t dominant, crashing into Lewis (Hamilton), slamming his team … As I said, for me, those comments on Saturday night and Sunday were totally disrespectful and unnecessary.”
Red Bull declined to comment on Russell’s allegations when approached by The Athletic ahead of publication.
Verstappen later responded to Russell’s comments in his regular Dutch media session, held at the end of each Thursday. According to De Telegraaf, when the quote about putting Russell in the wall was put to Verstappen, he said it was “not true, I didn’t say it like that. He’s exaggerating again.”
Verstappen went on to say that Russell was a “backstabber” for his comments. “The way he brings up all this nonsense, he’s just a loser,” Verstappen said. “He lies and cobbles things together that don’t add up. I only voiced my opinion about his behavior with the stewards. Clearly, he couldn’t handle that.”
The pair spoke after qualifying in Qatar (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Russell said that Verstappen had “taken it too far” with his latest comments but that he had no interest in speaking to the Dutchman as it was “his problem to deal with.” He characterized what Verstappen said as a “personal attack” that prompted him to want to set the record straight.
Asked by The Athletic To clarify when Verstappen made the comments to him, Russell claimed they were made privately following the stewards’ hearing.
“(It was) to me personally, yes, straight out of the stewards,” Russell said. “He said, ‘I don’t know why you would want to screw me like this, I’m so disappointed in you. I was going to not even race you tomorrow, I was going to let you by, but now, if I have to, I will purposefully go out of my way to put you on your f***ing head in the wall.’
“So, I mean… as I said, I don’t understand why he was so unnecessarily aggressive and violent in that regard.”
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Before Russell’s quotes were published publicly, Verstappen was asked generally in his pre-race press availability about his interaction with Russell following the hearing, to which he said he had “no regrets at all” because “I meant everything I said.”
“And it’s still the same,” Verstappen said. “If I had to do it again, maybe I would’ve said even more, knowing the outcome of the race results. I still can’t believe that someone can be like that in the stewards’ room.
“For me, that was so unacceptable because, I mean, we’re all racing drivers, we all have a lot of respect for each other, we even play sports together, you know, you travel together, and of course, you have moments where you get together, you crash, you’re not happy.
“In my whole career, I’ve never experienced what I have experienced in the stewards’ room in Qatar. And for me, that was really unacceptable.”
Russell’s comments come at the end of an F1 season that had seen Verstappen’s on-track conduct placed in the spotlight on multiple occasions, most recently at the Mexico City Grand Prix when the Dutchman was penalized twice for his racing moves against Lando Norris.
Verstappen previously faced criticism for his actions on-track when fighting against Lewis Hamilton, Russell’s Mercedes team-mate, for the world championship in 2021, with Russell referring to incidents at that year’s Saudi Arabian and Brazilian Grands Prix.
Verstappen went on to win the race in Qatar (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
“We’ve got a guy who’s on the top of this sport who feels he’s above the law, and I don’t think that’s right,” Russell said.
“I admire his on-track battles and when he’s hard and aggressive. But what we saw in the end of the season in ’21 or what we saw in Mexico with Lando, they weren’t hard, aggressive maneuvers. They were ‘do or die. I’m willing to take this guy out,’ which I don’t think is the way we should go racing.”
Russell also claimed he wanted to make a stand against Verstappen to set an example for future generations of drivers.
“I’m not going to accept him throwing remarks and comments around like this like they’re nothing,” Russell said. “And we’ve got to remember that we are the pinnacle of this sport. This weekend for example in Mercedes, we’ve got two junior drivers here, they’re looking up to us. That is not what we should be inspiring into the eight-, nine-, 10-year-olds who watch Formula One.
“I’ve got my nephew, eight years old, just starting to get into go-karting and watches every race. That is not how it should be.”
Russell spoke further about Verstappen in his scheduled media session at Mercedes’ hospitality unit later in the day and was joined unexpectedly by his team principal, Toto Wolff.
Wolff took issue with the comments made by his Red Bull counterpart, Christian Horner, about Russell’s actions in the stewards’ room. Horner claimed on Sunday night that Verstappen’s penalty “was more based on hysterics from George, who has been quite hysterical this weekend.”
Wolff said there was “always another side” in penalty debates and that it was the duty of the team principal to consider that with their driver.
“If you don’t do that, you’re falling short of your role,” Wolff said. “It’s just weak. At the end, why does he feel entitled to comment about my driver? How does that come?
“But thinking about it, I’ve spent 90 seconds to think about it… Yapping little terrier. Always something to say.”
Asked why he felt the need to speak up with Russell, Wolff replied: “There is a thing between drivers, and this is George and Max, and I don’t want to get involved in that, but if the other team principal calls George. hysterical, this is where he crosses a line for me.
“Now, his forte for sure is not intellectual psychoanalysis, but that’s quite a word. How dare you comment on the state of mind of my driver.”
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(Top photo: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)