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Four-time Formula One world champion, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, threatened to intentionally crash Mercedes driver George Russell at last week’s Qatar Grand Prix. At least that’s what Russell claims.
Verstappen is a very intense individual, which often rubs other drivers the wrong way. Winning four consecutive Formula One world championships also doesn’t garner him many friends in the paddock. However, according to Russell, this time he went too far.
After losing the pole position in Qatar last week when he was penalized for blocking Russell during qualifying, Max Verstappen went on TV and said he had “lost all respect” for the Mercedes driver.
“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,” Verstappen told a Dutch TV channel. “I can’t stand that. In that case you can better f— off.”
On Thursday, George Russell claimed that rant by Verstappen, who went on to win the race in Qatar, was just the tip of the iceberg.
“I find it all quite ironic seeing as Saturday night he said he was going to purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and ‘put me on my f—— head in the wall,'” ESPN reports Russell told the F1 media.
“So to question somebody’s integrity as a person, while saying comments like that the day before, I find is very ironic, and I’m not going to sit here and accept it.
“People have been bullied by Max for years now, and you can’t question his driving abilities. But he cannot deal with adversity,” Russell continued. “Whenever anything has gone against him, Jeddah ’21, Brazil ’21, he lashes out. Budapest this year, the very first race the car wasn’t dominant, crashing into Lewis, slamming his team.
Russell then called Verstappen’s comments “totally disrespectful and unnecessary,” adding, “he’s taken it too far now.”
“He said, ‘I don’t know why you would want to screw me like this, I’m so disappointed in you. I was going to not even race you tomorrow, I was going to let you by, but now if I have to, I will purposely go out of my way to put you on your f—— head in the wall,'” Russell elaborated. “So, I mean… as I said, I don’t understand why he was so unnecessarily aggressive and violent in that regard.”