Verstappen ‘let himself down’ with Russell collision

George Russell said Max Verstappen “let himself down” by appearing to drive deliberately into his Mercedes during the Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen of Red Bull was given a 10-second penalty for the collision that followed the Briton’s car.

The Dutchman was dropped from fifth to tenth in the overall standings, leaving him 49 points adrift of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who had won the race from team-mate Lando Norris.

Russell said: “Totally unnecessary and sort of lets him down. I’m not sure what he was thinking.

It is absurd to intentionally crash into someone and risk causing damage to your own vehicle as well as a fine.

“In the end, I’m not going to lose sleep over it because I ultimately benefited from those antics”.

Verstappen responded, “He has his view, and I have my view,” adding, “The next time, I’ll need some tissues.”

He said the incident was “a misjudgement,” but he was reluctant to go into more detail about it.

He was also given three penalty points on his licence. He is now 11 and is far from a race ban.

In the clash at Turn Five, stewards decided Verstappen had “significantly reduced (his) speed thereby appearing to allow]Russell] to overtake” but that once Russell was ahead Verstappen “suddenly accelerated and collided with]Russell]”.

You can’t intentionally crash into another driver, Russell said. We are, after all, putting our lives on the line. We’re fortunate the cars are as safe as they are these days. However, we shouldn’t assume it to be true.

It is up to the stewards to determine whether or not it was deliberate. If they do think it’s deliberate, then they need to have a hard precedent.

“Max has a lot of admiration for him,” says one reviewer. It’s unfortunate that something like that still occurs.

Verstappen said he had no regrets about his conduct.

He said, “You shouldn’t regret regret regretting too much in life.” You can only live once, I say.

Verstappen and Russell crossed swords during an extraordinary final five laps after a late safety car.

Verstappen had previously been on track to take home the McLarens in third place, having previously done so using a three-stop strategy.

All the leaders and the majority of the field pitted for fresh soft tyres when the safety car was deployed. But because of their three-stop strategy, Red Bull’s choices were limited.

Verstappen had to choose between leaving him on his soft tyres, which he had used for eight racing laps, and pitting for either a new set of softs, which had done one qualifying lap and the in-and-outlaps, some practice starts, and the laps to the grid, or a new set of hard-compound tyres.

Christian Horner, the team’s principal, acknowledged that he would have made the best decision in retrospect if he had been recalled.

This would have put Verstappen in the lead. He would almost certainly have fallen behind McLaren’s and perhaps Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, but that would have put him in fourth place, one place better than he did before his penalty.

Red Bull chose to bring him instead for the new hard tires, which the majority of teams avoided the weekend.

Verstappen questioned the decision upon returning to the track, and then nearly lost control in a massive moment on the exit of the final corner on the restart as he fought to keep pace with the cars on grippier tyres around him.

Leclerc immediately followed him on the straight, the two vehicles barely touching as they converged, and Russell followed him into the corner where they slammed their tires.

Verstappen alleged that Russell had allegedly barged him off the track, and Verstappen expressed anger over the Leclerc incident. But after stewards launched an investigation into him leaving the track and gaining an advantage, Red Bull decided to ask him to let Russell by, to avoid a penalty.

Verstappen was “obviously upset and irritated” and frustrated, according to Horner, who stated they would have an internal discussion about the situation.

Verstappen claimed that the “biggest issue” was with F1’s racing rules.

” What is allowed, what isn’t, is not very natural, “Verstappen said”. And that makes things frustrating. And of course, it occasionally works for you, occasionally against you, and today, it actually worked against me.

According to the guidelines, Russell was entitled to the corner, because he was more or less completely alongside Verstappen – the rules say that a driver overtaking on the inside has to have his car’s front axle at least level with the wing mirror of the one on the outside to be given space.

Due to “both cars were moving slightly toward each other in the middle of the track,” stewards decided not to intervene after the incident with Leclerc on the straight.

No driver was wholly or predominately to blame for this collision, according to the drivers, who were of the opinion that it was an avoidable collision that could have led to a significant crash.

Verstappen and Russell have previously been in heated situations.

After the Qatar Grand Prix last year, they had a significant row and exchanged public insults. That was over an incident in which Verstappen felt Russell had overplayed his hand with the stewards in seeking a penalty for his rival after an incident in qualifying.

Prior to that, there was a verbal altercation at the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, during which they once more insulted one another in public.

Verstappen claimed on Sunday that he was hesitant to talk to Russell about the incident. “I have nothing to say”, he said.

Verstappen has previously shown signs of letting his emotions control him in the car; in the same lap last year, he was given two 10-second penalties for two incidents involving Norris and him.

He also refused to talk about the events with the media after that.

In these situations, it seems Verstappen’s competitive instinct – which is intense – clouds his judgement, and overrides his usual desire to maximise every result.

Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes F1, said: “The great ones, whether it’s in motor racing or other sports, just need to have the world against them and perform at the highest level.”

The world is not against you, it’s just you who’ve made a mistake or screwed up, says one of these greats.

This incident could have significant consequences for Verstappen’s season.

Even though Verstappen has been able to challenge them on particular types of circuits, he was already engaged in a difficult fight with two drivers who were consistently performing well in a McLaren with a higher average performance ceiling than the Red Bull.

He has maintained his composure by maximising his successes, including two impressive victories in Japan and Imola, so far.

The Suzuka win was founded on a breathtaking pole lap, perhaps one of the greatest ever, and the second on an overtaking move on Piastri into the first corner that Russell, in the midst of his criticisms of Verstappen after the Spanish race, called” one of the best moves that we’ve all seen in a long time”.

Verstappen’s deficit in the championship, which had been headed for Spain, had fallen to 22 points.

Even so, he claimed that the championship “doesn’t really feel like a fight” when he first arrived in Barcelona.

Now, he has taken an action, influenced by a set of circumstances not all of which were in his control, that has made that more of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Verstappen’s response to that, perhaps?

He said, “First of all, I never said that I was in the championship fight.”