War of Words Rekindles Old Fire
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell have recently become involved in a public spat in which Verstappen has claimed to have “lost all respect” for Russell.
Fireworks between the two initially sparked when the two collided during the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – and Verstappen attributed blame for the incident unto the Brit, calling him a range of profanities in the process.
This flame was reignited last weekend during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix. Verstappen was seen to be ‘driving unnecessarily slowly’ and blocked Russell, who was on a flying lap at the time.
The flying Dutchman then received a grid penalty after Russell and Mercedes pressed for the FIA to act on the alleged injustice.
Verstappen then revealed “I have lost all respect for him”.
Russell has since alleged that Verstappen threatened to crash into him during the Qatar Grand Prix, claiming the Red Bull driver said “I’m going to put your f****** head in the wall”.
Both Verstappen and Red Bull have denied these words were ever said, but there is definitely no love lost between the two.
“Multi 21, Seb”: Two Red Bulls Lock Horns in Malaysia
The Malaysian Grand Prix of 2013 can never be discussed without mentioning Red Bull’s infamous ‘Multi 21’ situation.
In a race that should’ve been a comfortable one-two and a day for the team to celebrate, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber’s bittersweet bond turned sour when the German went against team instruction and overtook Webber.
After Vettel made a poor decision to pit for dry tyres on a damp track on lap 5, Australian Webber cruised into a fairly comfortable race lead in its early stages.
Vettel managed to recover to second place, but Webber had dominated throughout the race, and was instructed to preserve both his engine and tyres in the latter part of the race. The German, who was a three-time world champion at this point, ignored instruction to remain in position, and began reeling Webber in – as early as lap 29 Vettel was calling for Webber to “move over”.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was clear to Vettel on the radio; “Multi 21, Seb” – an instruction that car 2 (Webber) should remain ahead of car 1 (Vettel).
Vettel then ignored these instructions, overtook Webber and won the rsce, to the absolute disbelief and dissatisfaction of many fans.
Webber has since revealed that he felt more sad than angry when Vettel passed him, but on the day stated “he’ll have protection as usual” suggesting that team boss Helmut Marko would somehow defend the German’s decision.
Horner added that “they are never going to spend Christmas together”, which probably sums up the relationship between the two.
Trulli and Sutil’s Track Side Tussle
As much as the classic post-crash track-side confrontation between F1 drivers has mostly become a thing of the past, Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Force India’s Adrian Sutil couldn’t handle their emotions after a coming together in the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix.
The two collided in the races’s early stages when Trulli was forced onto the grass by Sutil, and subsequently lost control of his car, running into Sutil in the process.
The two then confronted each other on the side of the track for an extended period of time before being ushered off by marshals.
In the press conference before Abu Dhabi, more than a week after the incident, the drivers hadn’t changed their perspectives, both persisting that the collision was the fault of the other party.
Trulli even brought out printed images and said “I don’t know if you’re blind but…” before arguing his case. Sutil insisted “it’s not my problem it’s his”.
It was like a primary school argument, and one that world champions and press conference participants Kimi Raikonen and Fernando Alonso found particularly amusing.
Pressing Issues 
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