‘You Can’t Please Everyone’ – Vettel Sticks up for Russell Over Bottas Scuffle

Last time around, George Russell and Valtteri Bottas had a coming together that ended both their races prematurely. In the immediate aftermath, an incensed Russell had stormed up to the Finn and swung at him. Since then, the young Briton has calmed down, reflected on the incident, and admitted his fault. Although many had a low opinion on Russell, Sebastian Vettel has defended him.

Setting the scene of the accident, the Williams F1 driver was in the form of his life at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. He had just sneaked into the tail of the point-scoring positions. In addition to that, he was hunting down Valtteri Bottas in his struggling Mercedes.

Smelling blood, Russell pounced for P9 but botched it when he put a wheel on the wet grass. Predictably, he lost control and took both of them out of the race.

What did Sebastian Vettel say about the incident and Russell’s outburst?

Later on, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff had stern words for Russell in relation to the crash. On the other hand, a few pundits did not take too kindly to Russell’s actions on the track. Despite that, Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel leaped to Russell’s defense and insisted that there was nothing wrong in showing a little emotion.

“Emotions go both ways,” he said. “They go positive and they go negative, otherwise they wouldn’t be emotions. I don’t think they can swing only one way. There would be no highs without lows and no lows without highs. The real question I guess is what do people want?”

According to the German, fans have a double standard when it comes to displaying emotions. In other words, they want emotions, but on some occasions, the opposite is true. From there, they ask questions, ‘How can you? How dare you? Why did you do this? Why did you do that?’.

“The secret is you can’t please everyone, and just be yourself.

At the end of the day, there is no pleasing everyone, and all that Russell can do is to be himself. There are a number of limitations with regard to actions that drivers do on and off track. Now, Sebastian Vettel and George Russell are putting Imola behind them and focusing on this weekend’s race in Portugal.

READ MORE: Sebastian Vettel ‘Hard, Firm but Not an A**hole’: Ricciardo