George Russell and Max Verstappen have been involved in an explosive exchange of words ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This follows their qualifying run-in in Qatar last time out.
Verstappen received a controversial one-place penalty at Lusail because he fell below his delta time on a slow lap in qualifying. A fast-moving Russell approached him and had to take avoiding action.
Russell called Verstappen’s driving ‘super dangerous’ over the radio. But the world champion said he was mirroring the pace of Fernando Alonso in front, and pointed out that Russell wasn’t on a flying lap either.
The two drivers swapped places on the front row after the penalty, but Verstappen got ahead into turn one regardless. He went on to win the race, while Russell slipped to fourth.
Verstappen took their dispute into the public domain in the post-race press conference. He declared he’d ‘lost all respect’ for Russell because of his conduct in the stewards’ room.
On Friday, Russell had the opportunity to respond. And in doing so, he may have ignited F1’s next great rivalry.
George Russell echoes Lewis Hamilton’s criticism of Max Verstappen
Speaking to outlets including The Race, Russell questioned Verstappen’s sportsmanship. He accused him of becoming impetuous in moments of ‘adversity’.
“He cannot deal with adversity, whenever anything has gone against him – Jeddah ’21, Brazil ’21 – he lashes out,” Russell said. “Budapest this year, the very first race car wasn’t dominant, crashing into Lewis, slamming his team.”
Verstappen finished fifth in that race in Hungary, one of his poorest results of a largely faultless season. He was challenging Lewis Hamilton for third place when they spectacularly collided at turn one, allowing Charles Leclerc to get through.
The Dutchman was expressing growing frustration with his car’s handling limitations over the radio. Christian Horner summoned a meeting between Verstappen and Gianpiero Lambiase, his engineer, over their tense dialogue.
This led to criticism from Hamilton, who made a similar point to Russell ahead of the Belgian GP. He felt that his 2021 nemesis wasn’t acting like ‘a world champion’.
“You have to be a team leader, a team member,” Hamilton said. “Maybe not so much a team leader but more so just always remember you are a teammate with lots of people and you have to act like a world champion. Not like it was last weekend!”
Max Verstappen has already revealed how he’ll change his approach at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Inevitably, the dispute between Horner and Russell has filtered up to their team principals. Toto Wolff has attacked Christian Horner over his comments about the British driver.
Horner accused Russell of being ‘hysterical’ after qualifying in Qatar. In response, Wolff called his Red Bull counterpart a ‘yapping little terrier’ who always had ‘something to say’.
Russell doesn’t seem like he’s going to back down. He’s frustrated that other drivers have given Verstappen an easy ride, as he sees it.
And equally, the 63-time race-winner is famously immovable. Verstappen renewed his criticism of his ‘unbelievable’ penalty on Friday and joked that he was going to drive flat-out on cool-down laps and ‘act like I’m going to crash’ so others receive penalties.
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