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George Russell, Max Verstappen, and Charles Leclerc recently had a hilarious banter at the 2024 F1 Monaco GP press conference. The conversation was about Russell having an old hilarious video of Leclerc back from their karting days.
Drivers like Russell, Verstappen, Leclerc, Pierre Gasly, and even Alex Albon are from the same generation. Since they all were from Europe, they raced against each other in their formative years in various karting and junior formula series. The racers vividly remember being together as kids, racing fiercely on go-kart tracks, and occasionally enjoying each other's company off the track.
On Thursday's press conference ahead of the 2024 F1 Monaco GP, George Russell stated he still has an old video of Charles Leclerc from karting days. He revealed that the video was of Leclerc riding a broomstick, pretending to be a wizard.
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While the Ferrari driver humorously urged Russell to keep the video to himself, Max Verstappen laughed and added that he would like to see the old clip.
"I have a video, one of the very first videos I have on my phone is of Charles, 2012, with the long hair. I don't know if you remember, it was in... Ortona? Is it the Italian WSK?" Russell said.
"Yeah, but I'm a bit worried about what you're going to say next," Charles Leclerc
"You put the broomstick between your legs, and you're doing the sort of the wizard..." Russell added.
"I would like to see that one," Verstappen laughed.
When George Russell recalled his karting days with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc
Back in 2022, George Russell recalled how his fellow F1 drivers, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, used to race during their karting days.
In an exclusive BBC Sport interview, Russell was asked which one of his old rivals was the quickest. The Mercedes driver initially stated that he and other drivers would show their pace on the track itself. However, he recalled how he won the European Karting Championship, Max Verstappen won the WSK Championship, and Charles Leclerc clinched the one-off World Cup race.
"I think we'll do our talking on the track, but during the karting days we all had our fair share of success," Russell said.
"In 2011, there were three main championships. The European karting championship; there was a one-off race, which was the World Cup; and then there was a secondary European Championship, called the WSK Championship. I won the European Championship, Max won the WSK one, and Charles won the one-off World Cup race. So that was quite a fun year," he added.
After the 2024 F1 Imola GP, Max Verstappen leads the championship table with 161 points, followed by second-placed Leclerc with 113 points. Meanwhile, George Russell is down in seventh with 44 points.
