George Russell: “Verstappen, it’s either win or wall it’s his style”
George Russell described Max Verstappen's driving as « win it or bin it » after their collision at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The latest episode of the Verstappen vs Russell rivalry played out on Sunday in Barcelona, when the Red Bull driver was penalized for contact with the Mercedes driver.
Max Verstappen, struggling with hard tires and ordered to give back his position to George Russell after hitting him – which Nico Rosberg termed as a “battering ram” move – received a 10-second penalty.
“It’s just hard racing, plain and simple,” George Russell told Channel 4. “He’s a ‘make or break’ kind of guy. In recent years, he’s always been in front, so we didn’t see that. But we’ve all been racing against Max for a long time, since 2011.”
George Russell wanted to play it cool. It’s his style. I won’t say anything negative about it because he’s a four-time world champion and I have no titles, so he’s obviously doing something right. But a lot of young people admire F1 drivers. When we see what he did at Imola, we can only applaud. And then we see things like today, and it seems pointless. I don’t really understand the logic.
How to defend against Verstappen?
Max Verstappen had already responded sarcastically to George Russell’s concerns about the influence of his style on young drivers by stating: « I will bring him some tissues. »
If he initially refused to say whether his action was intentional, Max Verstappen eventually expressed regrets. The Red Bull boss, Christian Horner, revealed that the Dutch driver had apologized to the team during the debriefing.
On his side, George Russell believes there isn’t really a solution to counter the four-time World Champion. He says, “We just have to keep racing as usual.”
« We arrived in front of him. He probably could have made it back to the podium because Charles and I, on soft tires, were slowing down. The race would have come back to him. I’m just glad we didn’t have any damage and we were able to finish in P4. »
Regarding the incident, George Russell explained: From my perspective, he just hit me! I was a bit surprised. At turn 1, there was a slight contact. He kept the position, then rightly, he gave me back the position at turn 5. But when he did, he accelerated and hit me on the side. I don’t know what happened. We finished 4th, he got a penalty and finished 10th, so I’m not going to lose sleep over it.
He added: « I have already seen this kind of maneuver in simulator races… Never in F1. It’s up to the stewards to judge if it was intentional. »
A good result for Russell despite everything
Despite this incident, George Russell secured a solid result with a fourth place for Mercedes. But with few developments coming, he is now relying on… the weather.
« All we need now is a cloudy and cool day, he said. « The trend is clear: when it’s cool, or during night races, we’re good. When it’s hot, the McLarens take off, and we fall back. »
