George Russell’s furious radio messages in Brazil speaks volumes about his F1 season
Lando Norris might have secured a brilliant pole at the 2026 Sao Paulo GP, but George Russell was left to rue what might have been.
The Mercedes driver was one of the quickest drivers in the treacherous wet conditions in Brazil, but saw his fastest lap called off by the team.
As conditions worsened, the Brit furiously vented on team radio when he realised pole might have been his.
George Russell in rage with team over qualifying decision
Starting 2026 as this year’s favourite for the title as a proven race-winner in the best car, George Russell’s season has since fallen apart.
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While teammate Kimi Antonelli stole a march to become F1’s youngest ever champion last weekend in Mexico, his British colleague is now trying to salvage something of his reputation.
Sao Paulo looked like it might provide the platform to do just that.
Russell will take a five-place penalty tomorrow due to a power unit change, but after a torrid season, he dearly wanted the bragging rights of being fastest.
In a much-delayed qualifying session due to passing rainstorms, rivals Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc all fell back with muted efforts due to having grid penalties to serve anyway.
This left Russell fighting for pole in the final round with Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli.
For large stretches of the session, the Brit was fastest, but then found himself demoted by Russell late on.
However, the Mercedes man looked like he might reclaim first on the top of the timesheets he was then told to back off by his team due to increasing rain.
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George Russell's furious team radio messages
When the Brit realised he could have, in fact, just got his lap in, he left his engineer in no doubt of his feelings on the team radio.
“Mate, you told me to **** back off, what the hell?!” he raged.
Team boss Toto Wolff felt he had to intervene, chiming in to say, “George, you’re P2.”
Russell fired back: “P2?! I don’t wanna be P2, I wanna be P1! That was a P1 lap!”
The Brit was then left to reflect on a missed pole after his engineer told him he was 0.25sec up on his aborted run.
“It's the first time in a while I felt confident in the car,” he said afterwards.
“I felt more confident in the wet than I do in the dry. I don't really understand why that was. Felt more like myself, in the fight for pole every single lap.
“But yeah, unfortunately, when it mattered, we didn't execute.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff felt the need to placate Russell via TV interview too in the aftermath.
“If we were to have a crystal ball to know whether you should back off or not, then that would be helpful,” he said.
“A difficult one. It's a 50-50 call. He was running into Albon, was 18 milliseconds up on Norris at that stage, so I don't think it would have been enough for pole.
“But obviously, he's driven all sessions perfectly, and he merited to be on pole.
“George was in a league of his own today.”
Topics: Mercedes, George Russell
James Elson
