Red bull driver Max Vertsappen, and Mercedes driver George Russell got into a row after an incident that occurred November 30th during qualifying in Qatar. Russell claimed that Verstappen “was going to purposely go out of his way to crash into me”. This led to Verstappen having a one-place grid penalty that dropped him into second when starting the race on December 1st.
This incident escalated after Verstappen won, even after starting the race behind Russell. Verstappen called out Russell during a TV interview, saying he has “lost all respect” for the Mercedes driver and claims that “he acts decent in front of the camera here, but when you talk to him in person, he is a different person”.
Russell was hoping for this situation to be left behind, but after seeing Verstappen talk about it on TV, Russell was sure to get his side of the story heard. Russell came back saying that Verstappen has bullied people for many years, “but he cannot deal with adversity”. Russell says that Verstappen enjoys to lash out when things don’t go his way, and “he’s taken it too far now”.