‘Full-time menace’ Lando Norris stokes flames in Verstappen vs Russell ‘head in the wall’ row with cheeky Instagram post
LANDO NORRIS admitted he would like to see George Russell and Max Verstappen’s bitter war of words continue because it is “amusing”.
Red Bull world champion Verstappen and Mercedes star Russell have been embroiled in a vicious war of words since last week’s Qatar Grand Prix.
Verstappen, 27, said he had “lost all respect” for the Brit and accused him of being two-faced after receiving a grid penalty by stewards following a complaint from Russell on a cool-down lap in qualifying.
But Russell, 26, clapped back ahead of this weekend’s Abu Dhabi season finale by labelling the Dutchman a “bully” by threatening to put his “f****** head in the wall”.
McLaren driver Norris was the last driver in the running against Verstappen for the driver’s title this season, while he also had his share of scraps with his compatriot on track this season.
Off-track the 25-year-old is friendly with both and refused to be drawn into choosing sides between his Formula One rivals when speaking about the feud.
Instead, Norris was only looking out for himself and joked he wanted the beef to continue.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said while smirking: “I hope it doesn’t get smoothed out, I hope they stay fighting and arguing cause it’s amusing to watch.”
Answering more seriously, Norris continued: “It depends, every driver has their own way of doing things.
“I don’t think Max tries to intimidate, Max just says the truth in his opinion… People don’t like to hear the truth nowadays in life.
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“He’s honest and gives his opinion, I’m okay with that. Sometimes I disagree and sometimes I agree but that’s life.
“I respect Max a lot and I respect George a lot but I don’t mind if they lose respect for one another.”
Norris also joked about the driver beef following the end-of-season driver’s dinner.
He shared a picture of all 20 F1 drivers together after a dinner party and captioned the post: “2024 dinner! And yes, the two you’re thinking about were sat as far away from each other as possible.”
Reacting to the post, one fan said: “Part-time F1 driver full-time menace.”
A second said: “Lando giving us what he knows we all want.”
A third added: “Lando what a Gossip girl!”
Ex-F1 star David Coulthard said: “Dinner with a side serving of drama in the caption.”
Verstappen also replied with an emoji of a cut of meat.
While the driver’s title has concluded, the constructor’s championship has gone down to the wire, with McLaren holding a 21-point lead over Ferrari.
Other news on the grid has seen Jack Doohan replace Esteban Ocon at Alpine for the final race of the season before he takes the seat next year.
It is also Lewis Hamilton’s final race for Mercedes after an 11-year career with the team in F1 which yielded six world drivers titles and eight constructors championships.
F1 2025 grid
Here are the confirmed driver line ups for the F1 2025 season so far:
Red Bull: Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes: George Russell and Kimi Antonelli
McLaren: Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll
Williams: Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz
Sauber: Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto
Alpine: Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan
RB: Yuki Tsunoda and TBC
Haas: Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon