- Max Verstappen has accused Mercedes star George Russell of being two-faced
- Russell has since hit back and called the Red Bull champion a ‘bully’
- A body language expert has now revealed Russell’s real feelings on the situation
A body language expert has revealed what George Russell’s real feelings towards Max Verstappen are – amid a bitter feud between the two F1 stars.
The duo have become embroiled in one of the sport’s biggest dramas after a public falling out at the Qatar Grand Prix last month.
World champion Verstappen initially alleged that Russell was hypocritical over the incident that cost the Red Bull star pole in Doha by giving a different story to the stewards from the one he gave to the media.
Meanwhile, British star Russell claimed that Verstappen was a ‘bully’ and had told him he would, ‘put my f****** head in the wall.’
Now, world leading body language expert Darren Stanton has weighed in and given his opinion on Russell’s shock interview that called out Verstappen.
Speaking to OLBG, he said: ‘It’s clear that George Russell has lost all respect in Max Verstappen as a person, not just as a driver.
F1 stars Max Verstappen (left) and George Russell (right) have traded insults in the last week
Russell has claimed that ‘bully’ Verstappen told him he would, ‘put my f****** head in the wall.’
‘This is really interesting. George Russell starts off being very forthright, very dominant, standing toward the interviewer, looking at the camera — his eye contact is really good.
‘But when the interviewer says to Russell that Max Verstappen basically challenges what his account is, Russell turns his head. That’s the tipping point.
‘He breaks off and that denotes a shift in emotion because until that point he had been quite resolute.
‘He turns his head and ends up in profile and that is actually a display of sadness and shock. It’s clear that he had a lot of respect for Max and it has deeply hurt him.
‘Russell is being truthful. I think he is being authentic. There are no signs he is being deceptive. We’ve got no increase in blink rate. We’ve got no changes in facial tone of colour. The lips don’t currently change colour in terms of the blood being drawn away.
‘There’s no linguistic deflection. That would be like Bill Clinton and ‘I did not have relations with that woman’ — there’s no sort of distancing language like that from Russell.
‘I think he is being truthful in his account but the underlying and prevailing emotion is that he is deeply disappointed in the fact that the situation has come to this point with Max.
‘I think he is really upset. He’s angry, he’s disappointed, but predominantly he is upset and he has lost all respect for Max as a person — a person he previously held in very high regard.’
A body language expert suggested Russell did not have the ‘resilience’ to take on Verstappen
Despite Stanton outlining Russell’s frustrations against his Dutch counterpart, he also suggested that the British star does not have the ‘resilience’ to beat Verstappen.
He said: ‘Absolutely not. He doesn’t have the resilience to take Max on.
‘He’s more or less about to burst into tears in the interview so I do not believe he has the fortitude, the resilience, the strength to see this through. Most definitely not.’
