Max Verstappen says he has no regrets on any comments he made either to George Russell directly or to the media in the wake of the FIA stewards’ hearing in Qatar.
He also accused the Mercedes driver of “lying” in the stewards’ hearing that led to him being sanctioned.
Verstappen received a one-place grid penalty after being found to have driven excessively slowly in Q3 and hampered Russell.
After winning the race Verstappen told the media that Russell had actively tried to get him a penalty and that he had never seen a fellow driver act that way.
Although he didn’t reference it himself after the hearing Verstappen had threatened to put Russell “on his head” at the first corner should he receive a penalty.
Asked by this AutoRacer.it on Thursday in Abu Dhabi if he had any regrets about anything he said Verstappen was unrepentant.
“No regrets at all, because I meant everything I said,” he said. “And it’s still the same. If I had to do it again, maybe I would have said even more, knowing the outcome of the race result. I still can’t believe that someone can be like that in a 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 travel together. And of course, you have moments where you get together, you crash or whatever.
“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.”
Asked if Russell being a director of the GPDA and thus a representative of all the drivers Verstappen said that had no impact on his thinking.
“No, it has nothing to do with him being the director of the GPDA. I just 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.
“But clearly, it had an influence to them. Yeah, it was just really not nice, and actually very shocking what was going on there.”
Regarding the way he reported Lando Norris for not slowing for yellows in Sunday’s race he said: “It was just a normal question. I mean, I knew that I lifted, and I suddenly look in the mirror, and I saw that the gap closed up a lot.
“So I just asked, did he lift or not, just to double check. Of course, sometimes with yellow flags, some people lift more than others. And yeah, you can gain some tens here or there. I luckily tried to play it safe, and then just asked and see the outcome of it.”
