Max Verstappen makes ‘beautiful’ George Russell mistake at F1 Austrian Grand Prix

Austrian Grand Prix

Verstappen makes ‘beautiful’ Russell mistake at Austrian Grand Prix

Who says Max Verstappen doesn't have humour?!

Chris Deeley

Saturday 28 June 2025 22:56

Max Verstappen has paid a big compliment to possibly his biggest F1 rival, but did so in error.

The Red Bull star was participating in a pre-race media event with team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, in which they were each handed a pair of glasses with a mask attached and had to guess whose face they were wearing.

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Verstappen's mask was of F1 Movie star Brad Pitt, and his first searching question was simply: 'Am I beautiful?'

Told that yes, he was, Verstappen's immediate response was to guess that he was wearing George Russell's face. Sweet, but wrong.

Verstappen and Russell's uneasy rivalry

He then asked if his new face was a driver, or wanted to be, to which Yuki Tsunoda told him that he had recently become a driver.

With that info in hand, Verstappen easily identified himself as Brad Pitt, star of the film which finally released this week after seizing attention at countless races since they started gathering footage.

Perhaps one of the peacemakers in the F1 paddock will show Russell the clip this weekend in an effort to cement the pair's patched-up relationship, after a number of flash points over the last year.

Verstappen was clearly furious with Russell when he campaigned (successfully) for the Dutchman to lose his pole position at Qatar for a borderline impeding incident, and of course the pair came together at the Spanish Grand Prix at the start of the month.

Maybe all they need is to look into each other's eyes, call each other beautiful and then go off and exchange photoshoot pose advice and hair routines or something. Just a suggestion.

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Mercedes George Russell Brad Pitt