"The same Michael Masi who was receiving death threats from Lewis Hamilton fans?":Fans react to George Russell's claims about the former race director

George Russell and Mercedes organized a media event at the Abu Dhabi GP to respond to Max Verstappen's comments about the Brit after the 2024 Qatar GP. As the Mercedes driver revealed the details of what happened between the two, he alluded to the type of criticism Michael Masi might have received had Verstappen similarly lost the 2021 championship to Hamilton.

George Russell said (via Sportskeeda):

“Lewis stood up to him [Max Verstappen] in 2021, and Lewis lost that championship unfairly. Could you imagine the roles being reversed? I mean, [Michael] Masi would be fearing for his life.”

The Brit responded to Verstappen's “two-faced” and “lost all respect” comments. Russell explained how the four-time champion was swearing in the stewards' room and claimed he would put the Mercedes driver in the wall before the 2024 Qatar GP.

While doing so, Russell also brought back the Abu Dhabi 2021 controversy. Some fans, however, weren't too happy with Russell's comments about Masi and the fact that Mercedes organized a media event to hit back at Verstappen.

A user mentioned on X, "The same Michael Masi who was receiving death threats from Lewis fans????"

"Max has rattled the whole lot of them. Love to see it," said another user.

Another fan mentioned, "Disrespectfully, why does he keep bringing Lewis' name in his feuds?"

Some fans were annoyed by Mercedes and Russell bringing up the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix controversy again, three years after it happened.

A fan mentioned, "All it took them was 3 years to say it"

Another user wrote, "Lewis doesn't even want to be part of this conversation. The time to talk about AD21 was in 2021. They didn't back Lewis then, can't use it now."

"Only that it took three years to say this" tweeted a fan.

Nonetheless, Russell claimed that the purpose behind the media session was to put the issue to bed. He also pointed out Verstappen's inability to deal with adversity.

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“He cannot deal with adversity”: George Russell on why Max Verstappen got angry after seeing the stewards

Max Verstappen did not have the fastest car during the 2021 season when he was competing against Lewis Hamilton for the championship. A similar thing happened in Hungary this year where the new upgrade package didn't work and the Dutchman slammed the whole team. George Russell believes that Verstappen isn't able to deal with adversity like other drivers.

George Russell and Max Verstappen (Image via Getty)

George Russell said (via Sportskeeda):

“I don't know why this topic has got him so angry. And like I said to you before, he cannot deal with adversity. He's had the most dominant car in recent history for two and a half years. I'm not questioning his driving abilities one single bit, but the second he does not have the fastest car - let's take Budapest as an example, he crashes into Lewis. He slams his whole team and he loses the plot.

"Straight away after that race, 25 percent of his engineering team were sending their CVs to Mercedes, to McLaren, to Aston Martin because they said they can't deal with a guy like that.”

Toto Wolff and Zak Brown did confirm earlier this season that there was an increase in the Red Bull CVs in their inboxes following the team's downturn in form.