The driver called Verstappen ‘a bully’ in reveal all interview
George Russell has slammed Max Verstappen in a reveal all interview in which he called the world champion a ‘bully’ and uncovered the threat made to him by the Dutch racer.
Speaking at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix today (5 December) the Mercedes driver did not pull any punches as he slammed Verstappen after the Dutchman had taken aim at him following their bust-up at the Qatar Grand Prix last weekend.
Russel claimed that Verstappen had threatened to put ‘his f***ing head into the wall and labelled him a bully.
He said: “I find it all quite ironic seeing as Saturday night he said he was going to purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and ‘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 find is very ironic, and I’m not going to sit here and accept it.”
Russell went on to talk about Verstappen’s on track behaviour.
He said: “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 — 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 … As I said, for me, those comments on Saturday night and Sunday were totally disrespectful and unnecessary.”
He added: ““Because what happens on track, we fight hard, that’s part of racing. What happens in the stewards’ room, you fight hard, but it’s never personal. But he’s taken it too far now.”
Russell even name dropped the polarising Christian Horner into the mix as he claimed “they’re doing their utmost to get Horner out of Red Bull”.
“At the very first race that he wasn’t competitive, he was absolutely slamming his team, and I know for a fact the week after, a quarter of his engineering team were sending their CVs to Mercedes, to McLaren, to Aston,” he added.
