“Lewis lost that championship unfairly. Could you imagine the roles being reversed?” : George Russell fires shots at Max Verstappen
In a surprising turn of events, George Russell vs Max Verstappen has now become the hottest rivalry starting next season. On what initiated as a simple one-place grid penalty for impeding the Briton which demoted the Dutchman from pole position in the Qatar GP, things seem to have escalated.
On Thursday’s news conference, Russell addressed his situation with the now four-time world champion and revealed that the Dutchman threatened him to go out of his way to make him crash and put his head in the wall. He also compared Verstappen to the six-time world champion and teammate Lewis Hamilton, who would never dare to say such thing.
“I don’t know why he felt the need for this personal attack and I’m not going to take it. This is me just setting the record straight, I am not going to stand here and let someone slam me personally.”
“I knew that was a spur of the moment thing, but the next day, we were joking around a bit with (Sergio) Perez and Carlos (Sainz), I saw it in his eyes that he meant it.”
“He’s a four-time champion. Lewis (Hamilton) is the champion I aspire to be – hard but fair; never beyond the line. We have a duty as drivers. For a world champion to come out and say he is going to go out of his way to crash into someone and put him on his head, that is not the example we should be setting.” George Russell addressed his situation boldly.
Although, the Dutchman also came out to speak to De Telegraf, where he revealed that the Briton is putting false accusations towards him and he never said anything of sorts to Russell, but not before calling him a ‘loser’ and a ‘backstabber’.
“He lies and pastes all kinds of things together that aren’t true.”
“That’s not true. I didn’t say it like that. He’s trying to exaggerate it again.” Verstappen said when asked about Russell’s claims.
“Lewis stood up to him in ’21” : George Russell claims Max Verstappen to be a bully
George Russell was not finished firing shots at the Dutchman just yet. He additionally called out Verstappen’s inability to deal with adversity, hinting that Red Bull have spoon-fed him with the best cars, and when something does not go his way, he starts to spiral, giving examples of Lando Norris in Budapest and his current teammate. Russell believes that this behaviour of Verstappen has increased so much because of nobody standing up to him, except for Lewis Hamilton in 2021 where he lost the championship unfairly.
“Lewis stood up to him in 2021, and Lewis lost that championship unfairly. Could you imagine the roles being reversed? I mean, [Michael] Masi would be fearing for his life.” Russell also spoke about the race director Michael Masi.
“I’m not looking for any repercussion from this, I am standing up for myself to a guy who is questioning my reputation and slamming me in the media.” the Briton added.
While Max Verstappen has already said that he possesses absolutely no regrets for the comments he has said to George Russell, things have gotten more serious after the inclusion of Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff, who was also present with Russell in the conference.
The Austrian called out Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner, who called Russell ‘hysterical’. Wolff did not appreciate this one bit. “Why does he feel entitled to comment about my driver? If you’re thinking about it, yapping little terrier, always something to say. His forte is not intellectual psychoanalysis, but that’s quite a word. How dare you comment on the state of mind of my driver.” the Mercedes CEO said.
