Following the F1 Spanish GP, Mercedes driver George Russell got an unpleasant surprise after he and Max Verstappen got into an on-track brawl that left a frustrated Verstappen to collide with Russell.
What transpired to Russell in the F1 Spanish GP
After the safety car restart, an agitated Verstappen made desperate moves to salvage what’s left of his race. Losing grip by the second, the Dutch driver made contact with Leclerc and Russell, as he recounted.
“Nothing really. I think Charles was quite aggressive with Max in the straight. I think they made contact. So I went down the inside of Max. He turned in. We made a bit of contact. He cut the corner. So I was just expecting the position to swap back over.
“He let me pass into turn five. I left him space and he just crashed into me. I don’t really know, to be honest. I’m not going to think twice about it. In the end, we finished P4. He finished in P10.“
The contact caused Verstappen to be given a 10-second time penalty as well as 3 penalty points. Therefore, totaling his penalty points to 11 putting Verstappen dangerously close to a race ban.
‘Not going to lose sleep over it’ – Russell on the collision
To Russell, he felt disappointed to see a driver like Verstappen lose his head and make ‘unnecessary’ moves, as Verstappen did at the Spanish GP.
“It’s a bit of a shame because Max is such an amazing driver. You see such amazing things like he did in Imola with the overtake. I feel like the manoeuvre today was a little bit unnecessary. As I said, that’s his problem. We need to focus on our problems, which is making the car go faster.“
Asked if he felt it was deliberate at the time, he said “Yes, it felt very deliberate, to be honest.
“It’s something I’ve seen numerous times in sim racing and iRacing. Never have I seen it in a Formula 1 race. So that was something new. 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 lets him down.
“It’s a shame for all the young kids looking up, aspiring to be Formula 1 drivers. So, as I said, 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.”
Making sense of the action
According to Russell, his Spanish GP wasn’t really affected by that collision. He said that they were destined to be P4.
“I mean, that’s not really my place to say, to be honest. Right now, I’m not even going to give it any thought because we’ve got our own problems to deal with, which is trying to make our car go faster.
“We were sort of destined to finish P4 today, probably ahead of Charles and behind Max. Obviously, the safety car at the end shuffled things up, but it’s down to the stewards to decide if it was deliberate or not.
“Max is such an amazing driver and so many people look up to him. It’s just a shame something like that continues to occur. It just seems totally unnecessary and it never seems to benefit himself.”
Trying to make sense of the matter, Russell said that it doesn’t make sense to retaliate. He also commented that Verstappen could’ve bounced back on the waning laps of the grand prix.
“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 for fighting for the podium. Charles really dropped off at the end, pushing those soft tyres too hard.
“Obviously, he was probably frustrated being on the hard tyres, lost out in the beginning, but it was still five laps to go. As I said, I’m not going to lose sleep over it.”
Deliberate or not?
Nico Rosberg said on Sky during the Spanish GP that Verstappen should’ve been given an immediate disqualification for the collision with Russell.
It was brought up to the British driver, to which he clarified that it is still unclear to him if it was deliberate. He said that if it really was, then it should warrant a disqualification. He then added that it is the stewards’ final decision that will make the call, and set the precedent.
“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.
“As I said, it’s down to the stewards to determine if it’s deliberate or not. If they do think it’s deliberate, then they need to have a hard precedent. As I said, I’m not too bothered about it because that’s his problem. That’s the stewards’ problem.
“Ultimately, we were sort of desperate in the finish before today, I felt, although I probably should have been behind the McLarens and Max. That’s just where we are as a team.”
