Max Verstappen and George Russell have grabbed all the major headlines in the past 24 hours after they have had quite the verbal war that began last weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix. Both drivers have taken jibes at each other and both claimed after their exchange that they lost respect for the other.
Among all the bold claims that both parties made, one of them came from Russell when he claimed that Verstappen was swearing in the stewards’ room last weekend. The Dutchman labeled the Mercedes driver a liar and called him out for various other claims he made.
F1 insider David Croft has now sided with Verstappen and clarified that from what his Sky Sports F1 team is aware of, the recently crowned four-time champion never used expletive language in the stewards’ room. Croft said on commentary during the first practice session of the Abu Dhabi GP,
“There was a claim by George Russell — Max was swearing in the stewards’ room. Our indication is that there wasn’t any swearing going on in the stewards’ room from Max Verstappen”.
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With Russell potentially lying and making some “serious” accusations, Croft believes that Verstappen has a right to reply. Among his other claims, Russell also said that Verstappen was a “bully” and if the Dutchman had failed to win his maiden title in Abu Dhabi due to any controversy that would have gone against him, then former race director Michael Masi would have feared his life.
As per Russell, Verstappen has so far gotten “away with murder” and the Briton has made it clear that he will not let the 27-year-old bully him the same way he has bullied others. However, Verstappen categorically denied all of Russell’s claims and stated that the Mercedes driver was just making up situations that never happened.
How did the war of words between Verstappen and Russell begin?
Things escalated between Verstappen and Russell quite quickly, considering it all started with the Briton pushing hard for the Dutchman to get a penalty at last weekend’s Qatar GP. In Russell’s words, he had nothing personal against Verstappen when he was pushing for him to get a penalty and believes that this is just the nature of the sport.
However, Verstappen was livid with the extent to which Russell tried to convince the stewards for him to get the one-place grid penalty that he got. In the Dutchman’s words, he has never seen any of his rivals push so hard in the stewards’ room for any driver to get a penalty.
Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner seems to agree with Verstappen as he explained on The Red Flags podcast how it is unusual for any driver to speak so much to the stewards as the Dutchman claimed that Russell did.
As per Steiner, it is the representatives of each team that speak to the stewards on behalf of their drivers. And considering that Verstappen and his Red Bull team are not people who forget what their rivals have done made sure to hit back at Russell after the Dutchman won the Qatar GP last weekend.
Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, threw a “karma” jibe at Russell after the Briton crossed the line in fourth despite starting on pole.
