George Russell says Max Verstappen “cannot deal with adversity” as the Mercedes driver responded to the world champion’s comments that he had “lost all respect” for him.
Verstappen was unhappy about the role Russell played in the Red Bull driver being given a one-place penalty which demoted him from pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix last weekend.
Briton Russell said at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Thursday: “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.”
Russell said that after they left the stewards’ room in Qatar after qualifying, Verstappen swore while saying he would “purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and put me on my head in the wall”.
Russell added: “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.”
After Russell’s comments, Verstappen spoke to Dutch publication De Telegraf and accused the Mercedes driver of being “a backstabber” and “a loser”, adding: “He lies and pastes all kinds of things together that aren’t true.”
Asked about Russell’s claim that he said he would deliberately crash into him, Verstappen said: “That’s not true. I didn’t say it like that. He’s trying to exaggerate it again.”
‘People have been bullied by Max for years’
In Qatar qualifying, the two drivers tangled at Turn 12, forcing Russell on to the gravel.
Verstappen was penalised for driving unnecessarily slowly and found to have been “well outside” the target time required of drivers when not on a flying lap.
The stewards sided with Russell’s argument that Verstappen should not have been on the racing line if he was going slowly.
Afterwards, Verstappen said he “never expected someone to really try and actively get someone a penalty that badly and lying about why I was doing what I was doing”.
On Thursday, Russell denied setting out to get Verstappen a penalty.
“There is nothing to lie about,” Russell said. “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 and 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 (Norris’) penalty on the yellow flag. That’s not personal. That’s racing.”
Russell added: “I don’t know why this topic has got him so angry. He cannot deal with adversity. I am not questioning his ability one bit. But the second he does not have the fastest car, Budapest, he crashes into Lewis, slams his whole team and loses the plot.”
Russell said “people have been bullied by Max for years now”, and added: “He’s been enabled because nobody’s stood up to him.
“Lewis stood up to him in ’21 and lost that championship unfairly. Can you imagine the roles being reversed and Max losing that championship in the way Lewis lost it? (Then race director Michael) Masi would be fearing for his life.”
He added: “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.”
In an unusual step, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff attended Russell’s news conference and criticised Red Bull team principal Christian Horner for calling Russell “hysterical”, saying this “crossed a line”.
Wolff said: “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.”
Verstappen said on Thursday that he had “no regrets” about his comments in Qatar.
“I meant everything I said,” Verstappen said. “And it’s still the same. If I had to do it again, maybe I would’ve said even more, knowing the outcome of the race results. I still can’t believe that someone can be like that in the stewards’ room.
“For me, that was so unacceptable because, I mean, we’re all racing drivers, we all have a lot of respect for each other, we even play sports together, you know, you travel together, and of course, you have moments where you get together, you crash, you’re not happy.
“In my whole career, I’ve never experienced what I have experienced in the stewards’ room in Qatar. And for me, that was really unacceptable.”
By BBC Sports
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