Verstappen vs Russell: what they actually said in explosive F1 row

A fierce rivalry between Max Verstappen and George Russell has blown up ahead of F1’s 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi, following a minor grievance in qualifying for the previous race.

Crash threats and bullying claims have been tossed around publicly, in some of the bitterest exchanges seen in recent years.

Russell has claimed that Verstappen threatened to ram him off the track “on my f***ing head” the previous week in Qatar — an account that Verstappen has contested.

With Russell starting this weekend’s race just behind Verstappen, there’s looks to be a real chance that the conflict will spill over onto the track, and it’s not been lost that the pair could well be in contention for the 2025 title.

Verstappen and Russell’s history

Verstappen and Russell’s war of words appeared to come out of the blue but it isn’t the first time that the pair have clashed.

After a small coming together during the 2022 Azerbaijan GP sprint, Verstappen marched right up to Russell in parc ferme and accused him of “lacking common sense.” He was also later heard calling the Briton “Princess George”, “pathetic” and a “dickhead”.

“I was very surprised by how angry he was,” Russell said in response. “I am not just going to wave him by because he’s Max Verstappen in a Red Bull. I am here to fight and win.”

A few words exchanged in the heat of the moment was about as far as the feuding went back then — that particular fire doused by Verstappen’s dominance.

This time, it’s different.

Verstappen and Russell’s current quarrel stems from a relatively small incident during qualifying in Qatar, where Verstappen was given a one-place grid penalty for impeding Russell on his out-lap — after vocal complaints from Russell — which meant the Mercedes driver inherited pole position.

The penalty was ultimately irrelevant, as Russell struggled to get off the line and finished a distant fourth while Verstappen charged to victory.

But in his post-race interviews, the Dutchman stated he had “lost all respect” for the Briton and accused him of purposely “screwing him over” and being “two-faced” in front of the stewards.

Motor Sport‘s grand prix editor Mark Hughes has suggested that a clash of personalities probably didn’t help: “Verstappen doesn’t generally like Russell’s ‘head boy’ persona and so is probably quite easily wound up by him – and reacted accordingly,” he wrote.

Reports speculated that the pair then exchanged heated words behind closed doors and Russell sloshed fuel on the flames in Abu Dhabi as he gave his incendiary account of proceedings which are reproduced below in full.

“It’s funny, because even before I said a word in the stewards, he was swearing at the stewards,” Russell told media. “He was so angry before I’d even spoken.

“There is nothing to lie about. He was going too slow. He was on the racing line and in the high-speed corner. I wasn’t trying to get him a penalty. I was just trying to prepare my lap.

“You fight hard on track and in the stewards, the same way as Max the very next day asked his team to look at Lando’s penalty on the yellow flag. That’s not personal. That’s racing. I don’t know why he felt the need for this personal attack and I’m not going to take it.

“I find it all quite ironic,” he added, regarding Verstappen’s two-faced comments. “Considering that on Saturday night he said he was purposely going to go out of his way to crash into me and, quote, ‘put me on my f***ing head in the wall’. So, to question somebody’s integrity as a person while saying comments like that the day before, I think is very ironic and I’m not going to sit here and accept it.

“People have been bullied by Max for years now. You can’t question his driving ability but he cannot deal with adversity. When 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.

“I know for a fact the week after, a quarter of his engineering team were sending their CVs to Mercedes, to McLaren, to Aston.

“Those comments on Saturday night and Sunday were totally disrespectful and unnecessary… We fight hard on track, we fight hard in the stewards room. It’s part of racing. But it’s never personal. He’s taken it too far.”

“I just don’t know why the drivers when they’ve been in this battle with him have made it so easy and let it be. Lewis is a world champion who I aspire to be like and he’s the gold standard of a role model younger kids should be looking up to. 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. You can go beyond the line in making a misjudgement but going out of your way to say you will purposefully crash into somebody and put them on their head is beyond the line…

“We’ve got a guy on the top of this sport who feels he’s above the law and I don’t think that’s right. I admire his on-track battles and when he’s hard and aggressive. But what we saw at the end of the season in ’21 and what we saw with Lando [in Mexico]; they weren’t hard aggressive manoeuvres, they were do or dies — ‘I’m willing to take this guy out’. I don’t think that’s the way we should go racing.”

What’s Verstappen said about Russell? 

“I was quite surprised when sitting there in the stewards’ room, what was all going on,” said Verstappen, when asked to recall the Qatar incident.

“Honestly, very disappointing because I think we’re all here, we respect each other a lot and, of course, I’ve been in that meeting room many times in my life, in my career with people that have raced, and I’ve never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard.

“And that for me… I lost all respect.”

When asked about Russell’s crash threat, Verstappen was quick to try and debunk the situation.

“Not that. I didn’t say it like that,” he said. “But you know, that’s another thing. That happened behind closed doors, so you don’t have to share everything that was said there and make it more dramatic.

“But you know, those things don’t surprise me. I just give my opinion about how he is. Of course, he’s not happy with it, but it’s the same thing he did at the stewards. Lying and putting things together that aren’t correct.

“He’s a backstabber. It doesn’t matter to me. You don’t have to talk too much about people like that, they are just losers.

“We had the last laugh because in the end, we won that race. They may have started on pole thanks to their nitpicking at the stewards, but 300 metres later they were behind us again.”

In retaliation to Russell’s “bullying” claims, Verstappen again snapped back: “Why would anyone have to stand up against me? I did nothing wrong, did I? I just said I’m disappointed about his actions at the stewards, that’s all.

“It has nothing to do with anything else. I was very relaxed, I had already won my championship. Only, he had to be so dramatic to try and start first. He was screaming to gain one place, for him it can make a big difference.

“He is mentioning a lot of things that aren’t based on the truth. But that is what happened at the stewards as well. He insinuated a lot of things that don’t make any sense.

“It’s typical for him. People can believe whatever they want, it’s just not true. I am always the same person, whether I’m at home, here or at the stewards. You can’t say that about everyone.”

We don’t have to be best friends. That’s not why I’m here, to be best friends with him. That’s not my goal in the paddock, so I don’t care that much about it.

“Especially if someone acts like that towards you in front of the stewards. I’m done with him for a while.

“Qatar is Qatar and we just move on. I gave my opinion about what happened and that’s it. Life goes on.”

The aftermath 

As a result of the now very public conflict, neither Russell or Verstappen seemingly want anything to do with each other.

On the Thursday prior to the Abu Dhabi GP, all 20 of the current F1 drivers attended a private end-of-season dinner. Russell was reportedly the last to turn up and two seats were available — both next to Verstappen.

But instead of sitting down and hashing it out with the Dutchman, Russell instead took one of the seats and moved it away to sit at the other end of the table.

It’s all very Senna vs Prost isn’t it?

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Lando Norris (@landonorris)