© Richard Pardon for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
George Russell says Max Verstappen’s move was “something that I’ve seen numerous times in sim racing, and iRacing – never have I seen it in an F1 race”.
On lap 61 of the Spanish Grand Prix, after the race was restarted following a Safety Car period, George Russell attempted to overtake Max Verstappen, but the two drivers made contact.
Verstappen then cut across to the inner escape road and returned to the track ahead of Russell, which led to his engineer telling him to give the position back.
On lap 64, it appeared that Verstappen was letting George through, however as the Briton pulled alongside, Verstappen ran into the side of his car.
Ultimately Verstappen received a post-race ten-second penalty, and got demoted from P5 to P10.
After the race, George said Verstappen’s move felt deliberate.
“It felt very deliberate, to be honest,” the Briton said.
“It’s something that I’ve seen numerous times in sim racing, and iRacing – never have I seen it in an F1 race. That was something new.
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“It’s a bit of a shame because Max is clearly one of the best drivers in the world – but manoeuvres like that are just totally unnecessary and sort of let him down.
“It’s a shame for all the young kids looking up, aspiring to be F1 drivers. I don’t know what he was thinking.
“In the end, I’m not going to lose sleep over it, because I ultimately benefited from those antics.”
While George did not want to say Max definitely intentionally crashed into him, he said the stewards should be the ones to determine if he did.
“Honestly, I need to look back on it. If it was truly deliberate, then absolutely, because you cannot deliberately crash into another driver.
“We’re putting our lives on the line. We’re fortunate the cars are as safe as they are these days, but we shouldn’t take it for granted.
“It’s down to the stewards to determine if it’s deliberate or not. If they do think it’s deliberate, then maybe they need to have a hard precedent.
“I’m not too bothered about it, because that’s his problem, that’s the stewards’ problem.”
When asked if he thinks Verstappen has a personal grudge against him, George said:
“I honestly don’t know, to be honest, it just seemed all very strange and bizarre. I really don’t know what was going through his mind.
“As I said, it’s something that you’ve seen before in simulator races and go-karting, but never in F1.
“It doesn’t really make sense to deliberately crash into somebody and risk damaging your own car, risk a penalty. He could have come back fighting for [a] podium.”
Asked if any other driver would do what Verstappen has done, George answered bluntly: “Not in Formula 1.”
