The Abu Dhabi paddock was witness to one of the most intense press conference in decades with George Russell responding to Max Verstappen but what caused it all?
The arguments between Russell and Verstappen focus on one moment that happened during qualifying in Qatar. With both drivers on a slow lap, Russell very nearly crashed into the back of Verstappen with the Dutchman going slowly behind Fernando Alonso ahead of him.
Verstappen said he was going slow to avoid disrupting others’ lap while Russell said he was following the minimum delta speed and would have hit Verstappen had he not slammed on the brakes.
The two were summoned to the stewards with the result being Verstappen was handed an unusual one-place grid penalty, dropping him from pole to P2 and behind Russell. The official reasoning from the stewards said:
The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 1 (Max Verstappen), the driver of Car 63 (George Russell), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence. Car 1 was on a different preparation strategy to that of Car 63. Car 1 was well outside of the delta and the driver of Car 1 explained he had let Cars 4 and 14 past. The driver of Car 63 claimed that he had adhered to the delta and did not expect Car 1 to be on the racing line. He stated that if a car was going slow in a high speed corner, it should not be on the racing line. The Stewards regard this case as a complicated one in that clearly Car 1 did not comply with the Race Director’s Event Notes and clearly was driving, in our determination, unnecessarily slowly considering the circumstances. It was obvious the driver of Car 1 was attempting to cool his tyres. He also could see Car 63 approaching as he looked in his mirror multiple times whilst on the small straight between Turns 11 and 12. Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap. Had Car 63 been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual 3 grid position penalty, however in mitigation of penalty, it was obvious that the driver of Car 63 had clear visibility of Car 1 and that neither car was on a push lap. But the first sign of trouble came when Verstappen spoke to the media after he won in Qatar.
Appearing in the FIA post-race media session, Verstappen said he had “lost all respect” for Russell after the way he claims the Mercedes driver acted in the stewards room.
“I was quite surprised when sitting there in the stewards’ room, what was all going on,” said Verstappen. “Honestly, very disappointing. Because I think we all respect each other a lot. And of course, I’ve been in that meeting room many times in my life and my career with people that I’ve raced and I’ve never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard.
“And I lost all respect.”
Speaking to his native Dutch media, Verstappen went further and accused Russell of being two-faced. “You know what it is? He acts decent in front of the camera here, but when you talk to him personally, he is a different person … I can’t stand that. In that case you can better f**k off.”
A week went by before Russell was given a chance to respond and he did so and then some. Speaking to the media, Russell denied Verstappen’s version of events and laid into what he suggested were bullying tactics by the four-time World Champion.
“It’s just funny, because even before I said a word in the stewards’ [room], he was swearing at the stewards,” Russell told media including PlanetF1.com at the Yas Marina Circuit.
“He was so angry before I’d even spoken, and at the end of the day, there’s nothing to lie about. The facts were the facts. He was going too slow. He was on the racing line, the highest speed one. I wasn’t trying to get him a penalty at all. When I was on track, I was in pole position at this time, I was just trying to prepare my lap.
“And as drivers, you fight hard on track. You fight hard in the stewards’ the same way as Max the very next day asked his team to look at Lando’s penalty through the yellow flag. That’s not personal Max to Lando, that’s just racing, and I do not see why he felt the need for this personal attack, and I’m not going to take it.
“We’re adults, and we’re mature, and as I said right now, it’s not even something I’m thinking about. I never have the intention to throw Max under the bus like this, until he comes out and slams me so personally. But this is not like I’m angry with Max. This is me just setting the record straight, but I’m not going to stand here watching some guy slam me personally, as he has.
“I’ve known Max for a long time, and I know what he’s capable of. And you know, he said to me, he’s gonna purposely go out his way to crash into me, ‘put me on my f**king head in the wall.’
“I knew that was a bit of a heat of the moment thing, but when I went to see him the next day at the driver’s parade, Checo was there, Carlos was there, and we were joking around a little bit, you know, I saw it in his eyes that he means it.
“He’s a four-time World Champion. When I compare his actions to the ones of Lewis. Lewis is the sort of World Champion who I aspire to be like, you know, the way he fought Max in ‘21 it’s hard, very hard. It’s fair, but never beyond the line. And I think we’ve also got a duty as drivers.
“I’ve got an eight-year-old nephew who’s just started go karting, who watches all of my races, watches TikTok, watches YouTube, and for a World Champion to be come out, and he’s going to go out of his way to crash into someone and put them on their f**king head. That is not the sort of role models we should be.
“I’m not changing my mindset whatsoever. And also, in Qatar, I didn’t change my mindset whatsoever. You know, the start was pretty tame in Qatar, we both made a good start. So he just got ahead, and I was expecting a little bit more, but we have to see that. As I said, I’m not losing any sleep over it.
“I never, as I said, had the intention of coming out and speaking to you all like this, but he’s gone too far now with his personal attack, and now I’m returning the favour and putting the truth out there.
“So as of tonight, for me, this is put to bed, and it’s in race mode, and I’m focused on the weekend. I don’t need to talk to him, I don’t need to talk to him at all. There’s nothing for me to say.
“Honestly, I’m an adult. I’m not losing any sleep over it whatsoever. I know what Max is like. This is not the first time I’ve seen him like this. I’ve seen him like this as a 14-year-old in the go kart paddock. So this is just me sharing what really happened on Saturday.
“I don’t really know what there is to escalate. As I said, I walked into that stewards’ with no problem with Max. I walked out of that stewards’ with no problem with Max.
“Then s**t hits the fan, and the words he said to me, but again, I went back, and I told my team, and we laughed about it, and then I woke up the next day, and I was expecting to have a laugh about it, but as I said, I saw the fire in his eyes, so I don’t know why this topic has got him so angry.
“Like I said to you before, he cannot deal with adversity. He’s had the most dominant car in recent history for two-and-a-half years. I’m not questioning his driving abilities one single bit, but the second he does not have the fastest car… Let’s take Budapest as an example.
“He crashes into Lewis, he slams his whole team, and he loses the plot. You know, straight away after that race, 25% of his engineering team were sending their CVs to Mercedes, to McLaren to Aston Martin, because they said they can’t deal with a guy like that. And since Austria, he’s won the same number of races as six other drivers.
“So when you say is Max beatable? Of course, he’s beatable. You know, when he’s in the most dominant car, he is not beatable. The same way as Lewis and I when we had the most dominant car in Silverstone, in Las Vegas, we were not beatable either.
“I think he’s been enabled, because nobody’s stood up to him. Lewis stood up to him in 2021 and Lewis lost that championship unfairly.
“Could you imagine the roles being reversed and Max losing that championship in the manner that Lewis lost that championship? I mean, [former FIA race director Michael] Masi would have been fearing for his life.
“So, as I said, some of the recent incidents, he has been punished, and he punished himself. Mexico with the reckless overtakes, Budapest with the reckless overtake but it’s just in the past, he has such a dominant car, he’s not been in this position.
“I think the FIA are pretty, pretty on it now, and I don’t think much needs to change from their viewpoint, because he’s going to punish himself one way or another.
“I’m not looking to get Max penalised. I’m not looking for any repercussions from this. I am standing up for myself, for a guy who is coming out, questioning my integrity as a person, slamming me in the press. And I just want to set the record straight. As I said, everybody’s entitled to their own opinion, but for me, he crossed a line at the weekend, and that was too much.
“I honestly think it could have been anybody in that stewards’ room and Max would have reacted the same way. He’s made it personal when there was no need to make it personal.
“You know what happened in Baku was nothing. He’s a year older than me, we only crossed paths once in go karts in 2011 but as I said, he was wound up and frustrated before I even spoke in that stewards’ room.
“And I’m confident, no matter who it would have been sat on the opposite chair who just said the facts in the stewards’ room, he would have reacted the exact same way.”
Max Verstappen spoke to the media before Russell’s comments but even still, backed up what he said in Qatar.
“No regrets at all!” Verstappen said. “Because I meant everything I said, and it’s still the same. If I had to do it again, maybe I would have said even more, knowing the outcome of the race results.
“So 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, you know, play sports together. You travel together. Of course, you have moments where you get together, you crash, or whatever, 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.”
Asked if his anger towards Russell was influenced by the fact the Briton is director of the GPDA, Verstappen replied: “No, it’s nothing to do with him being a director of the GPDA.
“Just never expected someone to really try and actively get someone a penalty that badly and lying about why I was doing what I was doing.
“But, clearly it had an influence to them.
“Yeah, it was just really not nice and actually very shocking what was going on.”
Russell and Verstappen are not the only ones to have weighed in on the topic and Red Bull boss.
Christian Horner leapt to the defence of his driver in Qatar.
“Let’s just say he wasn’t enamoured with the decision,” Horner said of Max Verstappen, speaking to media including PlanetF1.com.
“It was a very strange decision, because obviously the circumstances of qualifying, both cars were on slow laps, and I did feel that George and Mercedes made a big meal out of it.
“Yesterday’s penalty was more based on hysterics from George,” Horner said, “who has been quite hysterical this weekend.
“I think there was a little bit of gamesmanship going on in that.”
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Mercedes Toto Wolff took exception to Horner’s comments and blasted him for criticising Russell.
“As a team principal, it’s important to be a sparring partner and, for your drivers, that means explaining that things can be more nuanced,” Wolff said.
“Statements that are absolutistic, thinking that everything is either 100 percent right or 100 percent wrong, it’s just something I think you need to explain. Think more nuanced, depending on your perception and your perspective.
“You need to allow for something to be 51/49, you need to allow it to be 70/30 so there’s always another side.
“Maybe, when you look at it that way, and you explain it to your drivers and to your team, you come to the conclusion that there is truth on both sides.
“If you don’t do that, you fall short of your role. It’s just weak.
“Why does he [Christian] feel entitled to comment about my driver? How does that come?”
“Yapping little terrier.
“Thinking about it, spending 90 seconds to think about it… always something to say.”
Wolff made it clear that his focus is on Horner’s involvement in the situation, as he said the feud between Russell and Verstappen is “between them”.
“I don’t want to get involved in that but, if the other team principal calls George hysteric, this is where he crosses the line for me,” he said.
“Now his thought, for sure, is not intellectual psychoanalysis, but that’s quite a world. How dare you. How dare you comment on the state of mind of my driver.”
Lando Norris also referenced a reported bust-up ahead of the drivers’ parade.
“I don’t know the details, actually, I do know a lot of the details of what was said and what happened,” he said with a smile.
