George Russell fired back at Max Verstappen after his critique of his personality at the F1 2024 Qatar GP as he accuses the Red Bull star of threatening to crash him out, and tears into the world champion by labelling him a bad teammate who loses composure in the face of adversity.
The development comes after the Dutchman suggested the Mercedes star is two-faced to the media and the stewards at the Losail International Circuit, and that he had lost respect for him after the Brit allegedly, and successfully, lobbied the stewards to hand his rival a grid-drop penalty.
Now ahead of the F1 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Russell decided to speak his own personal thoughts on the 27-year-old by further accusing him of bullying the paddock for years and points to examples such as the 2021 title fight.
The 26-year-old three-time race winner also pointed out that Verstappen had declared he would put Russell into the “f**king wall” on Lap 1 as revenge for the grid-drop penalty he took on November 30.
He further added that his antics at the Hungaroring for the 2024 Hungarian GP showed a lack of appreciation towards his own Red Bull mechanics at the first sign of “normal competitiveness”, after they had produced a dominating car for the 2023 season for the now-four-time champion.
“I find it all quite ironic,” Russell told members of the media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “Considering Saturday night he said he’s going to purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and, quote, ‘Put me on my f**king head in the wall.’
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“So to question somebody’s integrity as a person while saying comments like that the day before, I find very ironic. I’m not going to sit here and accept it. People have been bullied by Max for years now.
“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 car wasn’t dominant, crashing into Lewis, 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 – it’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.”
Russell says F1 grid responsible for Verstappen antics as he continues to tear into world champ
Further building on his comments, Russell also suggested that the rest of the grid has a collective responsibility to stop the behaviour and driving approach Verstappen adopts with the rest of the grid.
It’s a significant statement from the head of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, and he pointed to Lewis Hamilton as an expert role model for handing the policy the Dutchman takes to his fellow colleagues.
“I just don’t know why other drivers, when they’ve been in this battle with him, have made it so easy and just let it be,” Russell added. “Lewis is a world champion who I aspire to be like, and he’s the gold standard role model that younger kids should be looking up to.
“The way Lewis dealt with that championship fight, he was hard, he was aggressive, he was always respectful and he never went beyond the line.
“You can go beyond the line in making a slight misjudgement, but going out of your way to say you’ll purposefully crash into someone and put them on their head is beyond the line.”
