Arguments and food poisoning, the pilots’ Christmas dinner is a flop

As has become tradition, this year too, on the occasion of the last weekend of the Formula 1 season, the protagonists of the circus gathered for an end-of-year dinner to celebrate the championship which has come to an end and to spend time together, before the start of the frenetic weekend on the track.

Who was missing

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The dinner, organized by Lewis Hamilton, brought together almost all the drivers on the grid. Absent are the two Aston Martins, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, and the Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. Nico Hülkenberg is also missing from one of the photographs that went viral online, although he was present in another shot during dinner. There were therefore seventeen out of twenty participants at the dinner, on the Thursday which precedes the action on the track at Yas Marina.

No reconciliation

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Both Max Verstappen and George Russell were present at the dinner, the undisputed protagonists of the argument that animated the Abu Dhabi paddock on Thursday. The two accused each other after an argument that arose in Qatar following the Dutchman’s penalty in qualifying for the penultimate round of the year. “He acts nice in front of the cameras but the stewards did everything to get me penalized,” Max told journalists. Russell responded harshly in Abu Dhabi, accusing Verstappen of being “a bully for years” and of having threatened him before the Grand Prix. The dinner did not bring peace between the two who always appeared very distant in the photographs of the event between the pilots. According to some rumors in the paddock, the other riders tried to joke about the incident to bring peace at the end of the season, but achieved poor results.

Food poisoning

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The argument between Verstappen and Russell was not the only unexpected event at the Abu Dhabi dinner. On Friday, at the end of the first two free practice sessions, Charles Leclerc admitted that he had had food poisoning and that he hadn’t slept all night (between Thursday and Friday) due to what he ate the previous day: “I’m already better and I know that I will be fine tomorrow” said Leclerc, who did not explain the origin of the intoxication but the pain began just after the end of dinner with colleagues.

Bottas pays for everyone

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This year’s dinner was hosted by Finnish Valtteri Bottas, an outgoing Sauber driver at his end of the line in Formula 1 in this weekend’s race in Abu Dhabi. “I confirm that I paid – Bottas himself said in a video published on TikTok by Formula 1 – the bill was around 20,000 in local currency”. A figure that is around 5000 euros, almost 300 euros each for the seventeen participants. “It was a pleasure” added the driver, thus saying goodbye to the paddock of the top series.