Russell’s part in the Red Bull driver’s one-place penalty, which degraded him from pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix last weekend, infuriated Verstappen.
“I don’t know why he felt the need to take this personal attack, and I’m not going to take it,” British driver Russell stated during Thursday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“This is just me correcting the record; I will not stand here and take personal criticism.”
After qualifying, Verstappen swore and threatened to “purposefully go out of his way to crash into me and put me on my head in the wall” as they left the stewards’ room in Qatar, according to Russell.
Russell went on: “I was aware of that
There was an impromptu incident, but when we were joking around with Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz the following day, I could tell by the look in his eyes that he meant it.
“He has won four times. I want to be like Lewis (Hamilton), who is tough but fair and never goes overboard. As drivers, we have a responsibility.
“It is not the example we should be setting for a world champion to publicly declare that he will go out of his way to collide with someone and knock him down.”
Verstappen called the Mercedes driver “a backstabber” and “a loser” in an interview with the Dutch newspaper De Telegraf following Russell’s remarks, saying: “He lies and pastes all kinds of things together that aren’t true.”
Asked about Russell’s claim that he said he would deliberately crash into him, Verstappen said: “That’s not true. I didn’t say it like that. He’s trying to exaggerate it again.”
“Max has been bullying people for years.”
Russell was forced onto the gravel after the two drivers got tangled at Turn 12 during Qatar qualifying.
Verstappen was found to have been “well outside” the target time required of drivers when not on a flying lap and was penalized for driving excessively slowly.
Russell argued that Verstappen shouldn’t have been on the racing line if he was moving slowly, and the stewards agreed.
“I never expected someone to really try and actively get someone a penalty that badly and lying about why I was doing what I was doing,” Verstappen later said.
On Thursday, Russell denied setting out to get Verstappen a penalty.
“There is nothing to lie about,” Russell said. “He was going too slow, he was on the racing line and in the high-speed corner. I wasn’t trying to get him a penalty. I was just trying to prepare my lap and you fight hard on track and in the stewards.
“The same way as Max the very next day asked his team to look at Lando (Norris’) penalty on the yellow flag. That’s not personal. That’s racing.”
Russell added: “I don’t know why this topic has got him so angry. He cannot deal with adversity. I am not questioning his ability one bit. But the second he does not have the fastest car, Budapest, he crashes into Lewis, slams his whole team and loses the plot.”
Russell said “people have been bullied by Max for years now”, and added: “He’s been enabled because nobody’s stood up to him.
“Lewis stood up to him in ’21 and lost that championship unfairly. Can you imagine the roles being reversed and Max losing that championship in the way Lewis lost it? (Then race director Michael) Masi would be fearing for his life.”
He added: “I’m not looking for any repercussion from this, I am standing up for myself to a guy who is questioning my reputation and slamming me in the media.”
In an unusual step, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff attended Russell’s news conference and criticised Red Bull team principal Christian Horner for calling Russell “hysterical”, saying this “crossed a line”.
Wolff said: “Why does he feel entitled to comment about my driver? If you’re thinking about it, yapping little terrier, always something to say.
“His forte is not intellectual psychoanalysis, but that’s quite a word. How dare you comment on the state of mind of my driver.”
Verstappen said on Thursday that he had “no regrets” about his comments in Qatar.
“I meant everything I said,” Verstappen said. “And it’s still the same. If I had to do it again, maybe I would’ve said even more, knowing the outcome of the race results. I still can’t believe that someone can be like that in the stewards’ room.
“For me, that was so unacceptable because, I mean, we’re all racing drivers, we all have a lot of respect for each other, we even play sports together, you know, you travel together, and of course, you have moments where you get together, you crash, you’re not happy.
“In my whole career, I’ve never experienced what I have experienced in the stewards’ room in Qatar. And for me, that was really unacceptable.”