George Russell: Max Verstappen is “win it or bin it, that’s his style”

George Russell described Max Verstappen’s driving as “win it or bin it” after their clash at the F1 Spanish Grand Prix.

The latest in a series of Verstappen v Russell skirmishes came in Barcelona on Sunday, when the Red Bull driver was penalised for contact with his Mercedes counterpart.

Verstappen, struggling on a hard tyre and asked to concede position back to Russell before “ramming him”, according to Nico Rosberg, was given a 10-second time penalty.

“He’s a hard racer, it's as simple as that,” George Russell told Channel 4.

“He’s a ‘win it or bin it’ kind of guy.

“In the past few years he has been out in front so we haven’t seen it.

“But we’ve all been racing Max for a long time, since 2011.

“That’s his style. I won’t say anything negative about it because he’s a four-time world champion and I’m a zero-time world champion so he’s obviously doing something right.

“But there are obviously a lot of young kids who look up to all of the F1 drivers.

“You see things like he did in Imola, and you’ve got to take your hat off.

“Then you see things like today and it seemed unnecessary. I don’t really understand the rationale.”

George Russell asked how to defend against Max Verstappen

Verstappen previously responded to Russell’s concerns about the influence on aspiring drivers by sarcastically saying “I’ll bring some tissues”.

Although he initially refused to answer whether it was a deliberate move, Verstappen later expressed regret.

Christian Horner revealed that Verstappen apologised to Red Bull at their debrief.

But Russell knows there is nothing that can be done differently to combat Verstappen’s aggressive tactics.

“Not really. You just continue racing as you do,” he said.

“We came home ahead of him. He probably could have fought back to the podium because Charles and I, on the soft tyre, were dropping. It would have come back to him.

“I’m just glad we had no damage and could finish the race in P4.”

Russell described the incident: “From my side, he just crashed into me! So I was a little bit surprised.

“Turn 1 there was a bit of contact. He kept the place. Rightly so, he gave me the position back at Turn 5.

“But when he did that, he went on the throttle and crashed into the side of me.

“I don’t know what was going on. We finished P4, he got the penalty and finished P10, so I won’t lose sleep over it.”

He added: “I’ve seen those sort of moves in simulator racing before.

“I’ve never seen it in Formula 1. It’s down to the stewards if they think it was deliberate.”

The incident overshadowed a solid result for Mercedes driver Russell.

Without any imminent upgrades, he is left hoping for favourable weather.

“Right now, all we need is a cloudy day and cold conditions,” he said.

“The trends are clear - when it’s cool, or a night race, we are pretty good. When it’s hot and toasty the McLarens go off into the distance and we go backwards.”