There’s an age-old debate still raging to this day. Can we separate the art from the artist? In Formula 1, and other sports, too, we’ve had many great champions. More often than not, they’ve kept their reputation intact, on and off the track. But ever so often comes a man who defies all logic in the sport where he excels, but controversies surrounding them cause much grief and tarnishes their legacy. Novak Djokovic seems to have recently been caught up in a similar predicament with an F1 star.

Back in 2021, when the unfortunate COVID-19 pandemic was at an all-time high, tennis superstar, Novak Djokovic created a huge furor due to his stance on the COVID vaccine and his refusal to take the same. It’s been a while now, but it would appear that the people haven’t forgotten. Irrespective of what is essentially right or wrong, many people find the Serb insufferable now. And Silver Arrows’ star George Russell may have gotten entangled in someone else’s controversy.

Russell was in attendance at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters recently. And he took to his Instagram account to post a picture with Djokovic, who was participating. He captioned the post, “Great day watching this man doing what he does best. Thanks for taking the time @djokernole.” 

Fans react as George Russell shares a moment with controversial Tennis legend Novak Djokovic

As soon as Russell’s pictures with Novak Djokovic went viral, fans stormed to his Instagram account to share their displeasure and reactions to their moment. One fan even commented, “Aaaaand that’s where I lost my respect for you buddy.”

Let’s take a look at just a few of the fan reactions to Russell’s viral Djokovic moment.

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Fans really weren’t pleased to see their hero with someone they termed to be immoral and associated with a deadly virus that took many of their loved ones. One fan wrote, “What he does best is avoiding be vaccinated.” Whilst another said, “L Photo George you dissapointed me.”

Safe to say, Russell has somehow caught the ire of the fans online after his pictures with Djokovic went viral. From the perspective of the fans, the anguish is understandable. However, Russell has got himself into an unnecessary mess.

“George should be wearing a mask around him.”

“Dude, go testing. Now”

“Oof this is actually disappointing”

Fans were really slamming the 1x race winner for his association with the Serbian Tennis ace.

“Shame you had a photo with him George!”

“Mr antivax, Novax Djocovid”

“I think your PR should have checked that one – not a pleasant man” 

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What do you make of this fiasco?