George Russell made it clear he felt Max Verstappen should be penalised for leaving the track on the first lap of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver had a clear view of Verstappen cutting across the run-off area at turns one and two on the first lap of the race and moving ahead of Oscar Piastri.Shortly after the Safety Car was deployed, Russell used his radio to tell race engineer Marcus Dudley “Verstappen completely sent it off the track.” Drivers routinely use their radio communications with their teams to express their views on incidents for the benefit of race control, as Piastri and Verstappen did at the same time.
Russell, who ran third behind Verstappen and Piastri at the start, continued to press the case later in the Safety Car period, asking Dudley: “I presume Verstappen is going to have to give [up] this place?”
“It has been noted, so it will be under investigation,” Dudley replied.
Although Red Bull might have avoided a penalty for Verstappen by instructing him to let Piastri by, they did not. The stewards penalised him, which Dudley related to Russell, who did not reply: “So Verstappen has a five-second penalty.”
Russell might have stood to benefit from Verstappen’s penalty but gradually dropped back after the restart and fell to fifth place at the finish.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
In Qatar last year Russell said he lost respect for Verstappen over his conduct when the Red Bull driver was given a one-place grid penalty for impeding him in qualifying. Russell claimed Verstappen threatened to crash into him on purpose.
“He cannot deal with adversity,” said Russell. “Whenever anything is not going his way, he lashes out with unnecessary anger and borderline violence.”
Verstappen accused Russell of ‘trying to screw me over’ after they spoke to the stewards.
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
- Russell told race control what he thought of Verstappen’s first lap corner cut
- Doohan’s final corner pass on Bortoleto was F1’s closest fight for last place in seven years
- “Singapore plan” radio message was the wrong choice of words, Vowles admits
- ‘You’re the effective leader’: Full radio from Piastri and Verstappen’s Jeddah tussle
- Leclerc hopes new front wing for Spanish GP will be “turning point” for Ferrari
Dex
23rd April 2025, 12:41
He was right, but in this case he was far from a neutral bystander. Team radio is really more like FIA radio these days. I think that the stewards shouldn’t be able to listen to it, so that we don’t have to listen to Verstappen crying about being pushed off the track, Piastri demanding his position back, Russel hoping to gain something from this etc. The worst are those situations where a team would push its driver to complain, when he forgets to do it (“Driver X, driver Y pushed you off the track, right?” “Ah yes, yes, he definitely pushed me. That was dangerous.”).
osnola
23rd April 2025, 13:09
wow, thats a surprise ;)
Adam (@rocketpanda)
23rd April 2025, 13:34
I mean he stood to gain if Verstappen got a penalty, of course he’d say that. It’d be more surprising if he hadn’t.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
23rd April 2025, 13:39
To be fair, he’d stand to gain as much if Piastri was penalized for “forcing another driver off the track”.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
23rd April 2025, 13:44
But thats irrelevant as he didnt. Theres no room for 2 on that chicane as per most chicanes. He knew that, assume you do also
MichaelN
23rd April 2025, 15:08
There is always room. It’s just a matter of adjusting speed. The issue is that the FIA has, over decades, elevated Senna’s give up or we crash driving to the norm. And in today’s cars, on today’s tracks, there is zero incentive for the drivers to not drive like that all the time. Though it was still wrong back in the day, at least it came with risks to both drivers that made it somewhat rare and even spectacular.
LosD (@losd)
23rd April 2025, 14:34
To be fair, according to the quotes the article the only real mention of consequences from Russell was “I presume Verstappen is going to have to give [up] this place?”, which he would not really gain from.
David BR (@david-br)
23rd April 2025, 14:10
I know it’s self-interest (and obviously Russell knows everyone knows that) but generally these ‘third party’ assessments from drivers not directly involved and from different teams are a good indication of what actually happened.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
23rd April 2025, 14:32
Everybody knows it was Oscar’s corner. Verstappen would have done the same as Oscar had he been it that position (as he did in the past). Time to move on.
JC
23rd April 2025, 14:46
“He cannot deal with adversity,” said Russell. “Whenever anything is not going his way, he lashes out with unnecessary anger and borderline violence.”
Say what you will about Russel. This statement is as succinct an evaluation of Max can be.
MichaelN
23rd April 2025, 15:11
Hardly, Verstappen, like other drivers, have both good and bad moments. He has certainly misbehaved, and he’s wisdom dealt with setbacks in exemplary ways. It’s why he’s both controversial and a for time champion.
Though Russell does know a thing or two about lashing out and being physically violent.
Pierre
23rd April 2025, 16:50
Russell starts to look more and more like a cry baby. Stop racing or man up.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
23rd April 2025, 14:49
When regular posters post opinions, we’re told that we’ve never raced so we don’t know what we’re talking about.
When actual racers express their opinions, we’re told they’re biased.
Got it.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
23rd April 2025, 15:18
We don’t know what we’re talking about, that’s true. Doesn’t mean you cannot comment.
And Russell had every reason to urge for a penalty, not exactly for the love of sport and being a good fella. The more vulnerable all of your rivals can be, the better. Nothing against Russell, but in this particular incident, if this was, say, Pierre Gasly giving his opinion about the incident, I’d believe in it a bit more.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
23rd April 2025, 15:16
I’d not put too much emphasis into what Russell, then sitting P3 and close to those two, said about the incident.
roger norman
23rd April 2025, 17:32
Verstappen’s just like Christian Horner: Rules are meant to be bent beyond recognition.