2024 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[chrisc90]

Max always speaks his thoughts and mind. He is always right.

Fully expecting Max to do the same to George in Qualifying as to what George did with Max.

[venkyhere]

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - 17 minutes ago.

Max Verstappen threatened to ‘put me in the wall’ after stewards’ meeting, George Russell claims

— Mercedes F1 driver George Russell claims Red Bull’s Max Verstappen threatened to crash into him and “put you on your f***ing head in the wall” after their stewards hearing ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix and that “people have been bullied by Max for years now.”

While Verstappen won the race, he said afterwards that he had “lost all respect” for Russell and he had “never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard” in a meeting with the stewards.
But speaking to select media on Thursday, including The Athletic, ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Russell responded publicly for the first time to Verstappen’s comments.

“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,’” Russell said. “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.
“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.”

Russell said that Verstappen had “taken it too far” with his latest comments but that he had no interest in speaking to the Dutchman as it was “his problem to deal with.” He characterized what Verstappen said as a “personal attack” that prompted him to want to set the record straight.
Asked by The Athletic to clarify when Verstappen made the comments to him, Russell claimed they were made privately following the stewards’ hearing.
“(It was) to me privately, yeah, straight out of the stewards,” Russell said. “He said, ‘I don’t know why you would want to screw me like this, I’m so disappointed in you. I was going to not even race you tomorrow, I was going to let you by, but now if I have to, I will purposely go out of my way to put you on your f***ing head in the wall.’
“So, I mean… as I said, I don’t understand why he was so unnecessarily aggressive and violent in that regard.”

Before Russell’s quotes were published publicly, Verstappen was asked generally in his pre-race press availability about his interaction with Russell following the hearing to which he said he had “no regrets at all” because “I meant everything I said.”
“And it’s still the same,” Verstappen said. “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.”

Here you can read the whole article which is behind a paywall
.
PS.

“We’ve got a guy who’s on the top of this sport who feels he’s above the law, and I don’t think that’s right,” Russell said.

“I admire his on-track battles, and when he’s hard and aggressive. But what we saw in the end of the season in ’21 or
what we saw in Mexico with Lando, 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.”

pot calling the kettle black

(reminder : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjdwQDXxrfY)

Ego clashes are part of this sport, but I genuinely feel these two are taking it to another level.
last row sitting blunt bully of the class v/s the smart scheming front bencher of the class.
Hollywood.

[stewie325]

Russell has demolished Hamilton this year, but still only has a handful of wins in his career. He doesn't have the authority to walk around like a bigshot in the paddock talking smack at people.

I can't remember another mid-tier driver like him ever openly bad-mouthing a 4 times WDC. Maybe Montoya..

Anyway, Verstappen should take the high road on this one and ask George how many races/titles he's won...

[Farnborough]

I feel this position, from contributors of this thread is clear, making record without hysteria in overview of what has been said in press conference today.

Hopefully it'll not be sensored, with further contributions remaiming considered in temperament.

I do emphasise though, that for GR to bring up and include 2021 scenario, at this track and given it's important to team and LH in finishing their relationship, then he does indeed have a problem in conducting his thoughts and attitude for his own very selfish gain given the above.

Hopefully Max will be competitive and win to pull the rug from under such a pompous output.

[dren]

Media is hurting for stories.

[Waz]

This is super weird. Max has a private word with George after the meeting. So, Max maintains a professional attitude during the meeting in which George is, very clearly, behaving somewhat unethically.

Now George feels the need to bring the media into it? For what? And bringing up 2021? Ffs.

What's even worse is that the story has been written without Max even knowing that George has gone to the media and cried.

I can't even.

[GrizzleBoy]

This is super weird. Max has a private word with George after the meeting. So, Max maintains a professional attitude during the meeting in which George is, very clearly, behaving somewhat unethically.

Now George feels the need to bring the media into it? For what? And bringing up 2021? Ffs.

What's even worse is that the story has been written without Max even knowing that George has gone to the media and cried.

I can't even.

Lol why would they ever need to let Max know about what George has said?

They're a media outlet not Msxs secretary.

And if anything, this hoo haa haa is literally part of their business. Controversy sells, I guess.

[AR3-GP]

Months later and with Kimi Antonelli confirmed to be replacing Lewis Hamitlon next season, Verstappen suggested it would not have sat right to leave the team that has given him everything during its poor run.

“It is always important that you keep your options open,” he told ​​PA.

“But it was very clear that it was not on the cards. I was winning here. And when you are having trouble, to immediately run away, doesn’t sit well with me. It is not fair on anyone. I am loyal to this team for what they have done for me. And that goes both ways.”

There is always much talk about Verstappen’s future, which might be early retirement or moving to another team, but for the driver himself, being happy is all that matters.

“It is not like I need to try to win the world championship somewhere else,” the 27-year-old said.

“That is not a desire from my side. I am just happy where I am at. And it would also be very beautiful if you just could stay with one team and race there forever. I would like to believe (that could be with Red Bull). That is the target.

“Am I bothered about a legacy? No. I don’t value my success because of what other people say. If I am happy, that is all that matters.

“In sport, you also need a bit of luck to be in the right team for a long time. It doesn’t mean that the guy with the most titles is actually the best.”

https://www.planetf1.com/news/why-max-v ... -bull-saga

[Dazmacca5700]

Russell has demolished Hamilton this year, but still only has a handful of wins in his career. He doesn't have the authority to walk around like a bigshot in the paddock talking smack at people.

I can't remember another mid-tier driver like him ever openly bad-mouthing a 4 times WDC. Maybe Montoya..

Anyway, Verstappen should take the high road on this one and ask George how many races/titles he's won...

Very funny

[Big Tea]

If intentional of not Russell is in Max head now, and there is very little in racing that can distract Max, but, well lets see how this goes. We know Max takes rules close to the line (but still legal) so maybe George is trying to provoke him to overstep some times. No one is going to get a driving advantage over Max, but off putting worked for Rosberg (for a year, so is probably as rough for each side)

[dialtone]

I don’t understand why you are upset at George rather than the Stewards…

George is playing his game like any driver would. This event is not different than any other event happening between 2 drivers, like when LEC passed by quite fast next to NOR in FP3. There’s no morality here, Max doesn’t do things because they are right or wrong, he does because he wants to win.

Get mad at the inconsistency, that has often also favored you, but why getting mad at the player when Max is so good at this?

[PapayaFan481]

This is super weird. Max has a private word with George after the meeting. So, Max maintains a professional attitude during the meeting in which George is, very clearly, behaving somewhat unethically.

Now George feels the need to bring the media into it? For what? And bringing up 2021? Ffs.

What's even worse is that the story has been written without Max even knowing that George has gone to the media and cried.

I can't even.

Were you in the meeting? Or are you taking Max's word for it? Because according to George, who frankly I am more inclined to believe, Max was swearing at the Stewards even before they asked George what happened. At the end of the day, if Max followed the rules, he would not have got a penalty. Slam dunk, binary situation.

Max is a bully, always has been, look back to him assaulting Ocon a few years back.

Some people like that about him, because they claim he is straight forward and you know where you stand with him. Personally I think he needs to learn how to behave like a professional before he crosses a line and gets accused of bringing the sport into disrepute.

[PapayaFan481]

I don’t understand why you are upset at George rather than the Stewards…

George is playing his game like any driver would. This event is not different than any other event happening between 2 drivers, like when LEC passed by quite fast next to NOR in FP3. There’s no morality here, Max doesn’t do things because they are right or wrong, he does because he wants to win.

Get mad at the inconsistency, that has often also favored you, but why getting mad at the player when Max is so good at this?

Indeed. Apparently one of the other drivers even pointed out to Max that he'd have done exactly the same thing positions reversed. Presumably after whining about it on his radio for a few laps first.

[PapayaFan481]

...

And completely missing the fact that LH did really do this, put MV into the wall.

You mean when Max cut across the front of Lewis at Silverstone instead of letting Lewis outbrake himself and go off all on his own while Max would have carried on his merry way?

[Farnborough]

...

And completely missing the fact that LH did really do this, put MV into the wall.

You mean when Max cut across the front of Lewis at Silverstone instead of letting Lewis outbreak himself and go off all on his own while Max would have carried on his merry way?

My point was that GR was injudicious bringing 2021 into his current position, given that LH concluding his term at MB is more of the focus this weekend.

In any case, you clearly don't know it's not a "braking" ( that's the correct word instead of "breaking") corner for anything like being realistic in your description.

There's no point in any debate in that here, only that GR seems to want anything he can find pitched in to further his own selfish outlook.