Inside F1 drivers’ dinner with Max Verstappen and George Russell – and who paid the bill | F1 | Sport

The F1 drivers – including the feuding Max Verstappen and George Russell – set their differences aside and headed for a group meal ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with the departing Valtteri Bottas picking up the bill.

In previous years, Lewis Hamilton has picked up the bill, but in what could be his final year on the F1 grid, Bottas paid up, receiving thanks from Russell and Sergio Perez on their Instagram stories.

One of the most common snaps posted from the evening contained 16 of the 20 drivers on the grid with the Haas duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso absent.

Hulkenberg was spotted in Esteban Ocon’s post, but the others are believed to have missed the event.

This year’s driver dinner took place at a turbulent time for the F1 paddock, following Russell and Verstappen’s explosive rants in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The pair, who once played padel with one another between race weekends, traded insults after a controversial trip to the stewards’ room in Doha.

“I don’t know why he felt the need for this personal attack and I’m not going to take it,” Russell fumed on Thursday. “This is me just setting the record straight, I am not going to stand here and let someone slam me personally.

“I knew that was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but the next day, we were joking around a bit with [Sergio] Perez and Carlos [Sainz], I saw it in his eyes that he meant it.

“He’s a four-time champion. Lewis [Hamilton] is the champion I aspire to be – hard but fair; never beyond the line.

“We have a duty as drivers. For a world champion to come out and say he is going to go out of his way to crash into someone and put him on his head, that is not the example we should be setting.”

According to F1 correspondent Adam Cooper, Russell was the last driver to arrive at the driver dinner before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and was offered a seat next to Verstappen. He reportedly declined, moving himself away from the man who labelled him ‘two-faced’ and a ‘loser’.

Lando Norris also stoked the fire. In the caption of his Instagram post, he wrote: “2024 dinner! And yes, the two you’re thinking about were sat as far away from each other as possible,” along with two laughing emojis.