George Russell has made “work for himself” by daring to call out Max Verstappen and stand up for himself against the four-time World Champion.

That is the view of David Coulthard as the shock waves from Thursday’s Russell rant in the Mercedes hospitality suite continue to reverberate around the sport.

George Russell warned ‘bottom line will always be the race’

“It’s interesting that George has taken that on, it shows huge confidence on his part,” the former F1 star told PlanetF1.com. “It also will make work for him.

“The more you say the more the media collectively will pick up on a point and build on it. It’s like putting a finger in a little wound and making it bigger. It’s part of the entertainment.”

Coulthard, a 13-time grand prix winner, took counsel from a friend on the matter before offering his opinion to Planet F1.

“I spend a long time with my old team-mate Mika Hakkinen and I raised this very point with him,” explained the Scotsman.

“I said to him that as a racer he was famously conservative with his answers whereas nowadays I know him as somebody that doesn’t shut up. Why would that be?

“He said that was a strategy on his part. ‘I just didn’t want to spend more time than I needed to on things that wouldn’t help me go faster,’ is how he put it.

“On the one hand I go ‘yup, okay, that makes sense’. On the other, I always took the view that being a professional was not just about what you did on track, it was about how you dealt with partners, the sponsors, the media. Put your best foot forward at all times.

“But, you know, he won two World Championships and I didn’t, so whose strategy was the right strategy?!”

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The upshot of Russell’s outburst is that he will now, to borrow from Hakkinen, have to spend more time than he would like on things that will not help him go faster.

“George is obviously consciously willing to say what he feels and I respect that,” added Coulthard. “But the war of words will ultimately be decided on the race track.

“Their spat is brilliant [for the F1 product]. From a show point of view it is much more interesting when people aren’t always seeing eye to eye. It generates interest, talking points.

“But the bottom line will always be the race. It will always be the chequered flag.

“A bit like boxers giving a pre-fight press conference and doing all the trash talking, they know that’s part of the show. But the most important thing is who’s still standing at the end of the bout.”

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