George Russell has only completed one year with Mercedes and until now, he has done a great job in propping his team’s name up. To do that, one of the biggest requirements is to put down Red Bull and its drivers. Lately, the junior British driver has taken that intensity up a notch or two. His latest one ended up getting Max Verstappen fans riled up once again.

It wasn’t too long ago when Russell invited Red Bull fans’ fury. In a fun video for Mercedes’ YouTube channel, he reviewed every 2023 F1 track. When it came to rating the Red Bull Ring, he gave it the lowest score, citing the problem in the name of the circuit. While some found his comments petty, others felt it was Lewis Hamilton who had “poisoned” his mind.

George Russell offends Max Verstappen fans again

In a recent interview with SquareMile, when asked whether he regrets spending 3 years at Williams, Russell said that it was a mixed experience but he tends to look at its positive side. Then, he goes on to give a hypothetical example that has become the reason for Verstappen fans to crib about.

Russell said, “Take Max as an example, who got his promotion after just eighteen months. If Max had perhaps gone to a team like Mercedes and competed against a peaking Lewis Hamilton, it could have damaged his career.” [Translated using Google]

This was enough to provoke the Dutchman’s fans who came up with some whimsical stories of their own. Take a look at some reactions from Twitter.

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Some felt that Max would have amassed as many world championships as Lewis had, had he been his teammate in Mercedes’ golden era.

One fan felt that Hamilton would have had lesser championship titles to his name than Sebastian Vettel (4) had Max been his partner at Mercedes. That’s the thing about fantasies, one is free to cook up whatever they feel like. It’s like what Italian chef Gino D’Acampo had once so eloquently said, “if my grandmother had wheels, she would have been a bike”.

Another Verstappen supporter believed that the Dutchman and Hamilton being on the same team would have turned out to be more damaging to the Briton’s career.

Some fans sided with Russell.

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Whose career do you think would have taken more damage had the two sworn rivals been teammates at a team that only had its own drivers as each other’s real competition for so long?