Tag: george-russell

Max vs George

If this was WWE Teddy Long would be booking a tag team match. In one corner we have Verstappen and Christian Horner, the other Russell and Toto Wolff. If you were not aware after the last race Max spoke to the media about some shenanigans that went down after qualifying and accused Russell of doing his best to get him a grid penalty.

George has responded this weekend by stating that Max was in the steward’s room swearing and arguing with them about the penalty, he has also suggested that Max has threatened to “put him on his head in a wall”. Obviously, this can’t just stay between the drivers as Horner and Wolff have gotten involved with the latter calling Horner a “little Terrier”.

Max has hit back calling George a liar, which itself is a significant accusation. I do think to myself, why would the president of the GPDA lie about such things in a very public forum. However, I would like to think that Max would have a bit more about him than to swear at the stewards and make threats to George, at the very least you would assume there was an RB representative on hand to make sure these things didn’t get out of hand.

Russell has further stoked the fire by suggesting that Max is also a bully within the team and earlier on in the season other teams such as McLaren, Mercedes and Aston Martin were inundated with RB engineer’s CV’s. He didn’t stop there, however. Referring to Max’s 2021 title win. George suggested if it happened the other way around then Michael Massi the race director at the time would have “feared for his life” from the Verstappens.

I obviously have no contacts in the sport so I must take what you hear from the media with a pinch of salt, we know they are not always correct in their reporting and any information they get will be second or third hand information. What I do think however is that Max is clearly a tougher person than George, we all know the tough bringing up he had regarding his dad, and we all know the stories about how his dad has acted in the past. So, for me it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that Max may have been sterner in his approach to the situation. It’s not the first time we have seen fireworks between drivers, Schumacher marching to the McLaren garage at Spa in 1998 springs to mind. However, threatening to harm another driver on track, if true, is another level.

For me, instead of joining in the tit for tat. The team principles should be looking to nip this in the bud and not fanning the flames just because they also don’t like each other. Maybe it’s all a show to generate some talking points and get more people to tune in. I do think however that this needs to be dealt with harshly. If it’s true and I were to threaten someone I worked with, I’d be sacked or suspended immediately. They should be thrown into a room to discuss it like adults and get over it.

Other drivers then chime in on the situation with Lando saying that Max only talks the truth, which would suggest he thinks George is lying. I am unsure who to believe to be honest, they are very different people and if there was a physical altercation I would put my money on Max to come out on top. It will be interested to see what happens in the race if they are close together that’s for sure. Let me know what you think in the comments section.