{"id":27744,"date":"2024-12-05T08:53:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T13:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=27744"},"modified":"2024-12-05T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T14:00:00","slug":"george-russell-25-of-verstappens-engineers-tried-to-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/05\/george-russell-25-of-verstappens-engineers-tried-to-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell: 25% of Verstappen&#8217;s engineers tried to leave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/05\/george-russell-people-have-been-bullied-by-max-for-years\/\" target=\"_self\">George Russell<\/a> is currently conducting a fierce media offensive against Max Verstappen and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/01\/red-bull-will-let-perez-come-to-his-own-conclusions-about-future\/\" target=\"_self\">Red Bull<\/a>. The British driver is showing no shyness about criticising Red Bull&#8217;s internal situation.<\/p>\n<h2>Russell calls out Christian Horner and Red Bull instability<\/h2>\n<p>It is no secret that Red Bull have experienced plenty of turbulence away from the track this year.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the season opener in Bahrain, controversy surrounding <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/02\/horner-franco-colapinto-no-longer-an-option-for-red-bull\/\" target=\"_self\">Christian Horner<\/a> kick-started an internal power struggle.<\/p>\n<p>Jos Verstappen (Max&#8217;s father) was among those calling for Horner to step down.<\/p>\n<p>Although the situation at Red Bull is calmer, George Russell says there are still issues at Milton Keynes.<\/p>\n<p>Russell claims that Verstappen alienated his own engineers earlier in the year, leading to several rivals receiving CVs from the Red Bull camp.<\/p>\n<h4>Russell: A quarter of Verstappen&#8217;s engineers wanted to leave<\/h4>\n<p>The Mercedes driver certainly didn&#8217;t hold back:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;For me, it&#8217;s interesting this whole regard with him and his own team.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;They&#8217;re doing their utmost to get [Christian] Horner out of Red Bull,&#8221; <\/em>Russell told the media<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But at the very first race that he [Max Verstappen] wasn&#8217;t competitive, he was absolutely slamming his team.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I know for a fact, the week after, a quarter of his engineering team were sending their CVs to Mercedes, to McLaren, to Aston [Martin].<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I don&#8217;t respect somebody who doesn&#8217;t appreciate those who have given them the chance to perform.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Because in these last 12 races, he has had a car that is of normal competitiveness.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"iPVFaQ2JQgtWpN5uRLoV4g\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2188355141\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'iPVFaQ2JQgtWpN5uRLoV4g',sig:'DDohFd10e4l6Wo-Wp27iY9_WhDTCxiCdrRoIlQZDM9E=',w:'594px',h:'416px',items:'2188355141',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Red Bull and Mercedes rivalry re-ignited<\/h4>\n<p>With just one race left this season, it is unlikely (though not impossible) that Verstappen and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/01\/george-russell-i-would-have-won-the-title-in-a-mclaren-or-red-bull\/\" target=\"_self\">Russell<\/a> will fight wheel-to-wheel again in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>However, based on the W15&#8217;s upward trajectory, there is every reason for Red Bull and Mercedes to fight for the title in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>James Allison&#8217;s technical team have largely overcome their mid-season slump.<\/p>\n<p>Mercedes have successfully optimised their latest upgrades &#8211; which should form a foundation for their 2025 package.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Red Bull have managed to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/09\/01\/f1-news-red-bull-yet-to-get-head-around-rb20-limitations\/\" target=\"_self\">revive the RB20 after months of stagnation<\/a>. The new floor introduced in Singapore gave Verstappen the tools to finish off the Championship with three rounds to go.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this, both George Russell and Max Verstappen can be optimistic about their 2025 prospects.<\/p>\n<p>Even after his victory in Las Vegas, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/11\/24\/russell-its-about-time-someone-gave-verstappen-a-proper-fight\/\" target=\"_self\">Russell promised to bring the fight to Verstappen next season<\/a>. Of course, these comments were made before their feud spilled over.<\/p>\n<p>Considering how things have evolved since then, the British driver will have extra motivation to fight the Dutchman in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead to next year&#8217;s campaign, both drivers could fight for victories on a regular basis.<\/p>\n<p>Given that Russell and Verstappen&#8217;s frustrations haven&#8217;t cooled down since Qatar, it is safe to assume tensions will continue for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<p>In the context of Hamilton&#8217;s move to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/11\/07\/f1-news-ferrari-upgrades-incoming-for-final-stretch-of-2024\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari<\/a> and Antonelli&#8217;s Mercedes debut, this late-season conflict could add another fascinating dimension to next year&#8217;s grid.<\/p>\n<p>It also seems inevitable that Toto Wolff and Christian Horner will involve themselves in this dispute &#8211; reigniting another of F1&#8217;s most established rivalries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George Russell is currently conducting a fierce media offensive against Max Verstappen and Red Bull. The British driver is showing no shyness about criticising Red Bull&#8217;s internal situation. Russell calls out Christian Horner and Red Bull instability It is no secret that Red Bull have experienced plenty of turbulence away from the track this year. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":27736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,465,121,78],"class_list":["post-27744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1-news","tag-mercedes","tag-red-bull-racing"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27745,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27744\/revisions\/27745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}