ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — George Russell has escalated his war of words with Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen, claiming the Dutchman said “he was going to purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and ‘put me on my f—ing head in the wall.'”
Verstappen lost pole position in Qatar a week ago when he went to the stewards for blocking Russell during qualifying, with both drivers going to the stewards room to discuss the incident.
A one-place grid penalty dropped him behind Russell, but Verstappen still won the race.
After doing so, he called out Russell in TV interviews, saying he “lost all respect” for the Mercedes driver and accused him of acting friendly in public and then lobbying for his penalty in the stewards room.
In an interview to Dutch TV, Verstappen accused Russell of being two-faced, adding: “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 … I can’t stand that. In that case you can better f— off.”
But Russell said that was only half the story.
Speaking to a small group of media including ESPN on Thursday, Russell said Verstappen threatened to physically hurt him during the race once they left the stewards’ room.
“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—ing head in the wall,'” Russell said.
“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.
“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 … As I said, for me, those comments on Saturday night and Sunday were totally disrespectful and unnecessary.
“Because what happens on track, we fight hard, that’s part of racing. What happens in the stewards’ room, you fight hard, but it’s never personal. But he’s taken it too far now.”
Explaining the altercation in more detail, Russell said: “[It was] to me privately, yeah, straight out of the stewards. 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—ing head in the wall.’ So, I mean… as I said, I don’t understand why he was so unnecessarily aggressive and violent in that regard.”
ESPN has contacted Red Bull for comment.
Russell said he had been happy to leave the whole incident to happen in private until he saw what Verstappen had said in the media.
“I honestly just want to set the record straight, to be honest. Because it’s just a total double standard that he has for the regulations, and just thinking that he is above everybody else,” Russell said.
“So it’s not me trying to assert my leadership style or anything. It’s just somebody has come out and said that I’m a two-faced motherf—er, and he’s entitled to his own opinions.
“But coming out and saying that publicly, and slamming me publicly, as I say, I’m just not going to accept it, and I’m going to tell people what the reality was.”
Verstappen’s racing style on track has been a talking point for years — Russell suggested the Red Bull driver has been emboldened after years of favourable stewards’ decisions.
“He pushes himself to the absolute limit week in, week out, and that is in 95% of the scenarios, is incredible to see. And I respect him for that 95%.
“But there have been incidents that have gone unpunished. Maybe that is why he thinks he can get away with murder. But that is not the world we live in, and actions have consequences.
“I’m not taking it anyway, to be honest. I’ll let you come to those assessments. You know, it can just keep going on like that. For me, it’s interesting, this whole regard with him and his own team.
“They’re doing their utmost to get [Christian] Horner out of Red Bull, but at the very first race that he wasn’t competitive, [Verstappen] was absolutely slamming his team, and I know for a fact the week after, a quarter of his engineering team were sending their CVs to Mercedes, to McLaren, to Aston.
“So I don’t respect somebody who doesn’t appreciate those who have given him the chance to perform, because these last 12 races, he has had a car that is of normal competitiveness, and he’s been in the fight the same way as myself, Lewis, Charles, Carlos, Lando and Piastri have been. That’s how it should be.
“Again, I feel like we all need to lead by example here. He’s the biggest, most successful guy in the sport for the last couple of years. He can do what he wants in his own business, but when he starts throwing comments around like he did on Sunday night about me, I’m not just going to sit there and accept it.”
In another media session ahead of this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Russell continued: “Lewis stood up to him in 2021 and Lewis lost that championship unfairly. Could you imagine the roles being reversed? Max losing that championship in the manner of how Lewis lost that championship? I mean, [Michael] Masi would be fearing for his life.
“And the way Lewis dealt with that championship fight, he was hard, he was aggressive, he was always respectful, and he never went beyond the line.”
