Tag: george russell

Max Verstappen has refuted George Russell’s version of the arguments between the two following qualifying in Qatar, describing him as a “backstabber” after further exchanges ahead of this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Russell hit out at Verstappen on Thursday after the world champion had said he had lost all respect for the Mercedes driver for lobbying the stewards over a potential penalty last weekend. In his response, Russell claimed Verstappen said “I will purposely go out of my way to put you on your f****** head in the wall” ahead of the race, something the Dutchman denied.

“That’s not true; I didn’t say it like that,” Verstappen was quoted as saying by De Telegraaf. “He’s exaggerating again. Do you know what I can’t stand? The way he attacks me unacceptably with the stewards and then acts like nothing happened the next day, patting me on the shoulder. I think, ‘Stay away from me.’

“He invents all sorts of nonsense. With me, you always get the same: here, at home, with the stewards — I don’t change. You can’t say the same about everyone. But I’m not surprised by him.”

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Doubling down on his comments about Verstappen, Russell said later on Thursday that his rival has been enabled because nobody has stood up to him, citing his beliefs that Lewis Hamilton was the last driver to do so in 2021.

“Could you imagine the roles being reversed?” Russell said. “Max losing that championship in the manner that Lewis lost that championship. I mean, [Michael] Masi would be fearing for his life.”

Those remarks brought another firm response from Verstappen, who said: “George is a backstabber. The way he brings up all this nonsense — he’s just a loser. 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. And his comments about 2021? That’s how he acted with the stewards, insinuating nonsense.”

With Russell also claiming Verstappen’s conduct in Hungary this year had led to 25% of his engineering team sounding out work elsewhere, the four-time world champion suggested there’s been a bigger movement of personnel in the opposite direction.

“It’s tough for them, especially since we’ve poached many people from Mercedes for our engine program,” Verstappen said. “That causes frustration. But we’re having the last laugh because we won the race last week.

“They started on pole because of their nitpicking with the stewards, but 300 meters later, they were already behind. Everything Russell adds is irrelevant. I was very relaxed with the stewards, having already secured the championship. But he had to be dramatic to start first.”

George Russell has launched a scathing attack on Max Verstappen following the world champion’s criticism of his conduct in the stewards’ room in Qatar.

Verstappen said he lost all respect for Russell because, “I’ve never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard,” after the Dutchman received a one-place grid penalty for driving too slowly in qualifying. Verstappen made even stronger comments to Dutch television post-race, but Russell claims the four-time world champion then threatened to intentionally take him out of the race.

“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****** head in the wall,’” Russell told select media including RACER. “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.

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“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…

“For me, those comments on Saturday night and Sunday were totally disrespectful and unnecessary. Because what happens on track, we fight hard, that’s part of racing. What happens in the stewards’ room, you fight hard, but it’s never personal. But he’s taken it too far now.”

Fully recounting the interaction between the two, Russell added: “[He said it] to me privately, straight out of the stewards. 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 purposely go out of my way to put you on your f****** head in the wall.’ So I don’t understand why he was so unnecessarily aggressive and violent in that regard.”

While unaware of Russell’s latest response, Verstappen doubled down on his comments from Qatar during an Abu Dhabi Grand Prix press conference. But beyond the verbal exchanges, the Mercedes driver says he also takes exception to the way Verstappen races.

“[I’m speaking out] because he’s come out in the media, and I feel has disrespected me as a driver,” said Russell. “I’ve known him for 12 years, we’ve had respect with one another beforehand. We’ve never had any collisions. In the junior categories, he was always one [year ahead] — Max is a year older than me, so we only crossed paths once, in 2011, but we never really had any sort of comings-together. But 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.

“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 [Norris], 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.

“I honestly just want to set the record straight. Because it’s just a total double standard that he has for the regulations, and just thinking that he is above everybody else.

“So it’s not me trying to assert my leadership style or anything. It’s just somebody has come out and said that I’m a two-faced motherf****r, and he’s entitled to his own opinions but coming out and saying that publicly, and slamming me publicly, I’m just not going to accept it, and I’m going to tell people what the reality was.

“He pushes himself to the absolute limit week in, week out, and in 95 percent of the scenarios, that is incredible to see, and I respect him for that 95 percent. But there have been incidents that have gone unpunished. Maybe that is why he thinks he can get away with murder. But that is not the world we live in, and actions have consequences.”

Russell also says he lost respect for the way Verstappen has handled adversity at times this season, again citing the Hungarian Grand Prix where the Red Bull driver was extremely vocal on team radio. 

“It can’t just keep going on like that. For me, it’s interesting, this whole regard with him and his own team,” he said. “They’re doing their utmost to get [Christian] Horner out of Red Bull, but at the very first race that he wasn’t competitive, he was absolutely slamming his team, and I know for a fact the week after, a quarter of his engineering team were sending their CVs to Mercedes, to McLaren, to Aston.

“So I don’t respect somebody who doesn’t appreciate those who have given him the chance to perform, because these last 12 races, he has had a car that is of normal competitiveness, and he’s been in the fight the same way as myself, Lewis, Charles [Leclerc], Carlos [Sainz], Lando and [Oscar] Piastri have been. And that’s how it should be.

“I feel like we all need to lead by example here. He’s the biggest, most successful guy in the sport for the last couple of years. He can do what he wants in his own business, but when he starts throwing comments around like he did on Sunday night about me, I’m not just going to sit there and accept it.”