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Russell claims Max's style is do or die: 'He thinks he's above the law'
The row between George Russell and Max Verstappen is escalating, with the Dutchman claiming to have lost respect for the Briton and criticising his demeanor in the Steward's room, following their clash during Qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix last Saturday. However, Russell has now said his piece, and it is an unabashed criticism in the respects of Verstappen.
Russell critical of 'bully' Verstappen
Following Verstappen's candid words regarding his thoughts on Russell, now it's the latter's turn to respond, and quoted by Motorsport, he does not leave anything out, after he reveals Verstappen allegedly threatened him after the one place grid drop penalty the Dutchman received for the pair's incident in Qatar: "I find it all quite ironic, considering Saturday night he said he's going to purposely go out of his way to crash into me and, quote, 'put me on my fucking head in the wall'".
"To question someone's integrity as a person, when he made such comments the day before, I find very ironic and I'm not going to accept it either", added an indignant Russell, who later added: ""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".
Russell then brought up incidents that Verstappen played a key role in: "Jeddah '21, Brazil '21, he lashes out. Budapest this year, very first race, the car wasn't dominant, crashing into Lewis, slamming his team", stating that the Dutchman's Qatar comments were "disrespectful and unnecesary", before adding that that's "what happens on track. We fight hard. It's part of racing", to later equate that to his own demeanor in the Stewards room: "What happens in the steward's room? You fight hard, but it's never personal. But you know, he's taking it too far now".
Is Verstappen above the law?
"We've had respect with one another beforehand. We've never had any collisions….but we've got a guy who's on the top of this sport and who feels he's above the law. I don't think that's right".
The Briton takes it one step further and claims Verstappen has a do or die approach to racing. "what we saw at the end of the season in '21, or what we saw in Mexico with Lando [Norris], they weren't hard, aggressive manoeuvres. They were do or die: 'I'm willing to take this guy out.' Which I don't think is the way we should go racing".
This article was written with the assistance of Nicole Mulder
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