The first Sprint Race of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship was archived this afternoon after being held in Baku, home of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. In the half hour of the race, the greatest emotion came from the beautiful duel – tough but fair – between George Russell and Max Verstappen.
The Mercedes driver, who started better than the reigning world champion, joined him on the inside and so the two remained for three corners, with Verstappen making a stoic defense but having the worst of it.
In the second corner in which the two were paired, Russell briefly lost his Mercedes W14, ending up hitting the side of the RB19 which was on the outside. Verstappen, in return, also hit the outside wall, but not in such a way as to ruin his car.
At the end of the Sprint Race there was a verbal confrontation between the two, with Verstappen addressing his colleague with an eloquent term: “Head of c….”. Russell, once presented in the area dedicated to the interviews, said he was surprised by the reaction of his colleague from Red Bull.
“When Max came towards me I thought he was going to tell me that we had had a good fight, a good duel. I was very surprised to see how angry he was. As far as I’m concerned, he had already lost the position and already when we were 8 and it was raced in go-karts if you are inside the apex of a bend, the bend is yours”.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, battles with George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
“You have priority. And if a rider is trying to hold on outside, then he’s the one who takes a lot of risks. On the first lap, on a street track, I was very surprised to see how much he tried to defend his position. But at the same time I’m here to fight, I’m here to win, and I’m certainly not willing to give up everything because he’s Max Verstappen in a Red Bull.”
“I think there was a lot of bad words in our dialogue at the end of the Sprint Race. I didn’t hear much more than that. I’ve seen Ocon’s accident in the past… But as I said, he’s leading the World Championship and he was quite amazing as far as I’m concerned. And with the pace he had what he did wasn’t necessary at all”.
Russell then increased the dose, stating that with reversed roles Verstappen would have tried to do the same maneuver made by him, if not worse (the allusion is to various maneuvers made by the Dutchman when he was not yet one of the contenders for the title, but only to victory in some events of the World Championship).
“Honestly, I haven’t reviewed the pictures yet. So I don’t know what you guys saw from the television. But from inside the car, I had the right of way. It was my curve. I haven’t reviewed everything yet, but if Max had been inside, in my place, and I in his place, he would no doubt have done the same thing, if not worse. So that’s part of the contests.”
Finally, the British Mercedes driver lavished his compliments on Red Bull using very clear words. Right now one of the great advantages of the RB19 is tangible and clearly visible when the two single-seaters from Milton Keynes open the DRS. For others, and it is a fact, there is no escape. In fact, on the restart, after the Virtual Safety Car triggered by an accident involving Yuki Tsunoda, Verstappen was able to comfortably recover the position from Russell.
“At the restart, I mean, I know the difference between my car and theirs. I think that if we raced without the rear wing, Red Bull would still be faster than us on the straights and it’s no joke at all. So I honestly don’t understand what Max was trying to do.”
“They’re definitely doing something incredible, something really complex. Kudos to them for whatever they’ve been able to do in terms of straight-line performance. But, especially with the DRS open, as I said, we believe that even if we take the rear wing off they would still be faster than us,” concluded the Briton.
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