I think the narrative that Russell has less to loose that Verstappen is a bit nonsense. Yes Verstappen is in the title fight, but with the speed of the RB and how he normally has the upper hand over Perez, he can actually take a crash or two. For Russell, however, it is very important that he beats Hamilton over the course of this year. Doing that will require him to score points consistently, and not risk them in senseless fights with Verstappen.DGP123 wrote: ↑05 May 2023, 11:49Exactly. Lewis got attacked and labelled weak, constantly leaving doors open, yielding, and supposedly not on the level of the new generation of drivers coming through. All that nonsense.Just_a_fan wrote: ↑05 May 2023, 11:36George was doing to Max exactly what Max has been doing to everyone else for years. And as George has said, Max doesn't like it being given back to him. Which means it's exactly the right thing to do from George's perspective because Max will end up giving way in order to protect his title chances. This is exactly what Lewis was doing back in the days when Max was being hard-nosed around him. Now Max understands what Lewis was having to do and why.
Goes around, comes around.
Fortunately for Max, it’s not quite a similar landscape, as there is only the RB to fight with, and Perez will slowly but surely fade away by the summer break.
For Russell, there nothing to gain in the fight with Verstappen in Baku, given RB's superiority, except for having a very temporary buffer to the cars behind. Same for Verstappen, there was nothing to gain except not being behind Russell for a lap or two. I think for both it was not worth the risk they took.