Max Verstappen revealed that he spoke with George Russell at the conclusion of the 2024 Formula 1 season in an attempt to make peace and “start again next year”.
The duo’s spat got out of hand across the last round of the 2024 season based on events in Qatar which saw Verstappen lose pole position when he impeded Russell.
Verstappen himself said after the race that he had “never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard“ and that he had “lost all respect“ for his British rival.
The feeling was mutual, however, as Russell claimed Verstappen “bullied“ fellow drivers and “he cannot deal with adversity whenever anything has gone against him“.
Meanwhile, the Mercedes driver also alleged that Verstappen had cautioned him that he was going to “put me on my f***ing head in the wall“ before the race in Qatar.
But heading into 2025, it seems the pair have decided to attempt to pour oil on troubled waters.
“We spoke briefly after the race in Abu Dhabi,” Verstappen told Kleine Zeitung.
“That’s okay, we’ll start again next year and that will be fine.”
Lawson details F1 drivers’ dinner practical joke on Russell
Whilst Verstappen and Russell were raging a war of words on each other, the traditional end-of-season F1 drivers’ dinner took place before the weekend in Abu Dhabi.
Liam Lawson, who’s since been appointed as a Red Bull driver, spilt the beans regarding what went down that evening involving his new 2025 team-mate and Russell.
“This is f***ing funny,” Lawson said on the Pitstop podcast.
“We rock up and we’re at this big table, me and Yuki [Tsunoda] got there together, and we weren’t the first people there — there were probably like six or seven people there.
“But as the table was filling up, there was basically [one] side of the table was pretty much full, and opposite me was Max, and then there was like, three chairs to the left at the end of the table that were left.
“And George hadn’t turned up at this point — we were like, this is perfect.
“Everybody that was coming, we were like, fill that side of the table.
“We’re gonna save that spot for George, right next to Max.
“Then George arrives and we were all like, ‘Hey!’, and Max was like ‘Here [Lawson gestures beside himself] mate we’ve saved a seat for you!’
“And George just picks up the chair and walks to the other end of the table and sits on the other side of the table with Lewis [Hamilton].
“We thought it would be funny, It wasn’t funny — It was funny for us.”
READ MORE: Max Verstappen vs George Russell: Did F1’s latest bust-up get out of hand?
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