Unlike at the end-of-season dinner, there was no keeping as far away as possible from each other for Max Verstappen and George Russell at a GPDA event.

Relations between the duo became strained to say the least at the Abu Dhabi season finale after a war of words erupted following their encounter in Qatar, which resulted in Verstappen receiving a one-place grid penalty and conceding pole position to Russell.

George Russell and Max Verstappen pictured side-by-side

Even at the traditional end-of-season dinner for the F1 drivers, Russell and Verstappen were sat at opposite ends of the table, much to the amusement of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who posted a picture from the event with the caption: “2024 dinner! and yes, the two your thinking about were sat as far away from each other as possible.”

However, tensions have perhaps cooled as that was not the case at the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association [GPDA] end-of-season assembly. At the event, attended by all 20 drivers, Verstappen and Russell were seen next to each other when posing for a group photo.

All 20 drivers! ❤️#F1 #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/YJtlgN4eOd

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 7, 2024

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Among the array of verbal jabs were Verstappen accusing Russell of “lying”, while Russell brought up Abu Dhabi 2021 and even claimed Verstappen had threatened to purposely crash into him and ‘put me on my f**king head in the wall’.

However, with Russell – who is chairman of the GPDA – placed together with Verstappen for this photo, perhaps Russell listened to the advice of Red Bull team boss Christian Horner to address the issue with Verstappen face-to-face.

“Rather than doing it through the media, or through you guys, just go and have a conversation,” said Horner when speaking to Sky F1.

“Talk about it man-to-man, face-to-face. If you’ve got something to say, say it. And rather than ‘he said, she said,’ far better to address it that way.”

That being said, Horner did warn Mercedes racer Russell that Verstappen is not someone to banish such episodes from his mind.

“To be best mates with your competitor, it’s a very unnatural thing,” Horner added.

“You’re trying to beat the hell out of each other on track. There’s so much at stake. And then, of course, it’s competitive.

“And sometimes I think, to put on a false presents, that it’s all chummy chummy, it can’t be like that. That’s sport.

“And I’ll tell you what, Max never forgets.”

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