There’s something about the season’s penultimate race of the season which for the second year in a row is home to some driver trash talk as the championship moves to a close.

Last year a row between George Russell and Max Verstappen exploded, with the Mercedes driver claiming the Dutchman was a bully and had threatened to pu his head into a wall.

Verstappen responded saying he’d never seen a driver beg the stewards to give a fellow competitor a penalty as he alleged of Russell and that he’d lost “all respect” for the British racing driver.

 

 

 

Verstappen attempts to destabilise Norris

This year it was Verstappen who stirred the pot first in an attempt to destabilise his championship rival Lando Norris by suggesting had he been driving the McLaren MCL39 he wold have won the title “weeks ago.” Yet this became the start of a paddock driver trash talk round exchanges as George Russell became involved.

When Verstappen speaks his mind, the other drivers tend to respond with a no comment reply along the lines of ‘that’s Max being Max.’ Yet Norris here clearly felt the need for a robust response to the four times world champion

“Max is very welcome to say everything he wants, to be honest. He kind of earned the right. He’s won four world championships. I have a lot of respect and I think that gives anyone a lot of credit in general. He’s achieved an incredible amount, more than anyone generally dreams of achieving,” replied the McLaren driver.

“Max generally has a good clue about a lot of things, but there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about,” implying in this case the world champion was talking rubbish. “This is also Red Bull’s way of going about things, this kind of aggressive nature, just talking nonsense a lot of the time.”

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Norris fumbles to ball in Qatar

In fact, Qatar has not been the walk in the park the park for Norris as he’d hoped, with his Australian team mate qualifying ahead of him for the first time since eight race weekends ago in Zandvoort. Piastri converted his Sprint pole into a win on Saturday morning before eclipsing his McLaren team mate again in the afternoon.

Norris seemed on edge on Saturday afternoon as he attempted to correct the mistake of running too late in SQ3. There he allowed Alex Albon to pass him on the warm up lap before his last push lap, but misjudged the time remaining arriving at the chequered flag too close to Albon and within 2 seconds remaining in the session.

Having clinched provisional pole for the Grand Prix, Norris went out considerably earlier for his final Q3 run, but a mistake and a snap of understeer cost him his line into turn two which put him badly out of shape to the next corner. Norris bailed out, returning to the pit lane to find he had been pipped by Piastri on his final attempt.

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Norris accuse of blaming Russell

Russell was lurking at turn one when Norris started his final push run and come the paddock interviews he was told Lando Norris had blamed the Mercedes driver for ruining his final lap. The drivers were standing next to each other in the media pen, when Russell turned to Norris demanding to know what he had said about the incident.

“You told the media the reason you messed up was because of me,” claimed Russell. 

“Who said that?” Replied Norris

Russell: “Someone said you’re blaming me.”

Norris appealed to Russell’s shared experience of dealing with the media: “We’re with media, mate. Don’t listen to that bullshit. Can’t believe you believe them over me. Pretty disappointed.”

Russell: “It sounded like something you would say, though.”

Norris: “What even happened? Where were you? You let me pass?”

Russell: “I was going to give you a tow to help you win the championship,” he joked.

Norris: “You let me pass in 1, and I messed up in 2.”

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Russell winding Norris up

George Russell then attempted to identify the reporter who he claimed had told him about Norris’ accusations. He turned pointing and said: “She said it; She’s stirring.”

George then did a staring motion to emphasise his point whilst grinning from ear to ear before saying finally: “I’m playing with him.”

The Mercedes driver then left for other media duties, whilst a more serious than usual Lando continued to conduct his mandatory interviews. He was asked by Sky’s Rachel Brooks: “What was that with George? Don’t fall out with him ahead of Turn 1.”

Norris: “Nah, George doing George stuff, nothing more.”

Brookes: “He wasn’t winding you up, was he?”

Norris: “No, all good.”

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Russell refutes claims he’ll be “aggressive”

Russell went on to correct Sky presenter Simon Lazenby who had opened the interview questioning Russell’s alleged comments that he wold be aggressive at the start of the Grand Prix. 

George replied, “One person in the TV pen told me that Lando said that I blocked him at Turn 1, and that’s why he made a mistake. And that turned out to be a load of BS.”

In terms of his approach to the opening few corners of the Qatar Grand Prix, Russell explained how he would approach the start of the race. “I actually said that I’m not going to do more risk or less risk than any other race because I’m probably slightly more calculated this year than in the past.

“Honestly, I don’t really care about the three in front. I’m racing for myself, but if there is an opportunity, I go for it, and if not, then I don’t.”

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Zak Brown: “Don’t miss the race start”

Verstappen had bounced in full of beans to his media events on Thursday, explaining to journalists present he would be taking an aggressive approach to the weekend ahead. Having qualified for the GP directly behind Norris on in P2, the world champion expressed his determination ”to try everything at the start” to overtake Norris and keep his world championship hopes alive.

He dryly claimed he had “less to lose” than the two McLaren drivers up ahead who whilst team mates are fighting for a maiden F1 drivers’ world championship.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown acknowledge how Verstaoppen wold handle the start on Sunday, telling viewers “for sure, you know he’s going to try and lead into Turn 1. So I wouldn’t miss the start of tomorrow’s grand prix”. 

Both Piastri and Verstappen need Norris to have some kind of trouble during the Grand Prix, given he remains 22 points ahead of his team mate and 25 ahead of the Red Bull driver.

 

 

 

Hamilton’s desperate plea to save his F1 career

The arrival of Lewis Hamilton in Maranello could not have been more fanfare, it was as though the reincarnation of Michael Schumacher was walking through the factory doors.

He was given a personal tour of the facilities by non other than Ferrari group president John Elkann, who the Italian media report was a key individual in the recruitment of the seven times world champion.

John Elkann is no motorsport buff and it seemed the mega deal done to bring Lewis to Ferrari was three years too late. Hamilton has been struggling since losing the 2021 drivers’ title race to Max Verstappen, beaten easily by his junior team mate George Russell at Mercedes…. READ MORE