It is impossible to ignore the context of all this on both sides.
For Verstappen, the incident came at the end of a long, difficult season that has been his most impressive on various levels.
He Won the championship with two races to spare Despite having a car that was only the fastest for the first five Grands Prix, he did so with a consistent excellence that no one could match. Everyone in F1 – including Russell – recognizes this.
As Alonso said on Thursday: “When I saw the car being third, fourth fastest… when I saw McLaren win a couple of races before the summer… at Zandvoort, Lando did 25 won by over a second or something like that… I thought, well, the championship was going to be tight until Abu Dhabi but then it wasn’t tight because one driver was brilliant.
At the same time, Verstappen is holding together a team that at times looked like it was falling apart at the seams.
It began with accusations of sexual harassment against team principal Christian Horner, which he has always denied and which he Cleared by two internal investigations
Verstappen’s father Jos has been at loggerheads with Horner as a result of the allegations. They are rubbing shoulders at the moment, but Horner knows both Verstappens will have to be treated with caution.
Max has also encountered. Adrian Newey, the greatest designer in F1 history, has resigned. At least in part as a result of the allegations against Horner. And the departure of two other senior figures with whom he has worked for nearly a decade.
And he has led his team through something close to crisis with his car’s performance over the summer, and, on the other hand, his brilliant, cathartic, career-defining and essentially title-winning run. As a result of Victory in the wet in Brazil from 17 on the grid.
Russell, meanwhile, as director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, has been at the forefront of drivers’ efforts to get the FIA to rewrite the rules governing racing, a move that has sparked Verstappen driving against Norris at the US Grand Prix.
After Verstappen defended his lead in Austin with his trademark ‘dive-bomb’ defense – ensuring he obeyed the rules by staying at the front, but both cars on the exit off the track, a move he used several times against Lewis Hamilton. 2021 – Drivers have had enough.
To a man, they like Verstappen as a person and respect him as a driver. But as Verstappen said in an interview with BBC Sport in Las Vegas: “It’s not necessarily how I’m on the track, it’s not necessarily how I’m off the track. I know that on the track, if you If you want to win, if you want to be a champion, you need to be on the edge.”
And for many of his fellow drivers, Verstappen can drive in extremes in ways that are unacceptable.
The Austin incident followed a week later at a drivers’ meeting in Mexico in which a majority of drivers made it clear they wanted to rewrite the rules of racing in a way that would no longer expressly allow, even encourage, racing. Also encouraged will be dive bomb defense.
After that meeting, Russell said 19 of the 20 drivers were “aligned to where they needed to be”. He did not say who is exempt. He didn’t need to.
Two days later, at the Mexico City Grand Prix, Verstappen went even more extreme in his driving. Against Norris, earned himself two separate 10-second penalties for two different moves in one lap.
Russell said on Thursday: “Lewis is the champion I aspire to be – tough but fair, never over the line.
“I’m not losing any sleep over it. I never had any intention of speaking out and speaking out like that but he’s gone way beyond that personal attack and I’m out there getting the truth out there and returning the favor. I am.”
There is another additional dimension. Their feud also reignites the rivalry between their two teams, which has been largely dormant since then. A bitter title battle between Verstappen and Hamilton in 2021.
After Horner called Russell “crazy” in Qatar, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff decided he should get in on the action. Wolff, unusually, attended Russell’s news conference Thursday, and indicated to a reporter that he, too, wanted to ask a question.
He snapped at Horner: “Why does he feel entitled to comment about my driver? Little terrier yapping, always something to say.”
