{"id":613921,"date":"2026-04-17T23:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/613921\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:44:10","slug":"george-russell-says-he-wants-to-keep-max-verstappen-in-f1-but-would-understand-if-he-goes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/613921\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell says he wants to keep Max Verstappen in F1 but would ‘understand’ if he goes"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell says he doesn’t want Formula 1<\/a> to \u201close\u201d Max Verstappen<\/a> as the four-time champion vents his unhappiness with the new cars.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has been the most vocal critic of the 2026 cars’ reliance on electrical power and the compromises it forces drivers to make on track. He’s even suggested it could be his last season in F1.<\/p>\n

Russell is an old rival of Verstappen and has his best shot yet at the title thanks to Mercedes’ strong start to the season. He trails teammate Kimi Antonelli by nine points ahead of the Miami Grand Prix in two weeks.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFormula 1\u2019s bigger than any driver. You wouldn\u2019t want to lose Max because I think we all enjoy racing against Max,\u201d Russell said Friday, and suggested some of Verstappen’s criticism might be because he and Red Bull aren’t among the title contenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe complaints that he has currently are different to the complaints of Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren because we\u2019re at the front end of the grid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell said Verstappen’s interest in forays into other events like endurance sportscar racing might be linked to having \u201cnot really much more for him to achieve\u201d in F1.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen is contemplating his progression in Formula 1. \u00a0NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal now is to become a Formula 1 world champion. If I had four of them (titles) under my belt, I\u2019d probably be doing the same,” Russell said.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s in a very different stage of his career and I think you\u2019d understand if he stayed and you\u2019d understand if you went.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell said potential rule changes have been a focus for him during the unexpected mid-season break caused when the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were called off.<\/p>\n

Russell wants to bring back a \u201cflat-out\u201d feel to qualifying with less need to lift off the throttle and generate electrical power and says that’s helped by an improved relationship between the drivers and the governing body, the FIA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FIA have been in a lot of comms with a handful of drivers, and that\u2019s been collective. And at least from the FIA technical standpoint, it\u2019s probably the closest relationship we\u2019ve had with them in numerous years, so that\u2019s very positive to see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell says he doesn’t want Formula 1 to \u201close\u201d Max Verstappen as the four-time champion vents his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-613921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}