George Russell & Valtteri Bottas Reveal Their Venomous Exchange After ‘Kamikaze’ Collision at Imola GP

The Drive To Survive season 4 is finally here. The Netflix show refreshes many moments from the unforgettable 2021 season, and one of them was the infamous Valtteri Bottas and George Russell crash.

Both Russell and Bottas had to retire from the Imola race because of a disastrous crash. Right after the crash, the young Briton shouted at the veteran Finnish driver, and Bottas showed him the finger in return. In DTS Season 4, the eighth episode focuses on the infamous Emilia Romagna incident, where Russell and Bottas both share their experience of the crash.

Russell shared what happened in that incident, “I said, “Are you trying to kill us?“ I don’t think he [Bottas] heard me, and he just called me a C**T, and stuck his finger at me.”

The former Mercedes man also shared his side and said, “He [Russell] wasn’t very happy. And I didn’t understand what it was all about. Clearly, it was his fault, so it was quite surprising.”

Read More: George Russell Hilariously Trolled by His Former Williams Teammate – “We’re Happy You Left”

“A lot more important, because zero points from that race,” Bottas further shares his disappointment for not scoring any points. Moreover, even Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff talked about this incident and compared the crash to World War II’s Kamikaze crashes.

Wolff said, “George had an opportunity to overtake. I think it was a bit of a kamikaze project. Ending up in the wall with 50-plus G is never nice. Valtteri could have been injured.”

Many believe that the incident got more heated because of the speculations that Russell was going to take Bottas’ place in Mercedes. However, the young Briton later apologized for his behavior at Imola.

George Russell on the upgraded Mercedes W13

The upgraded Mercedes W13 received a lot of criticism because of the negligible sidebars and the fin at Bahrain testing. In light of this, the young Mercedes driver responded to those criticisms and praised the upgraded W13. “I guess it looks interesting but it’s not about how it looks, it’s about how fast it goes. It obviously caught a few people’s eyes this morning,” Russell said during a press conference.

“From my side, I’m proud to be part of a team that’s pushing innovation and all this hard work, blood, sweat and tears going into something pretty spectacular being pulled off is pretty incredible.” The 24-years-old further added, “But as I said, it doesn’t matter what it looks like. We need to see if it’s fast on track.”

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Formula 1 fans should keep their eyes on the young Briton this season. George Russell will soon take the W13 for his first official race as a full-time Mercedes driver at the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 20.