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George Russell explains why he expressed his frustration over the team radio when he was asked to manage his tyres behind team-mate Kimi Antonelli.
George Russell lost several positions at the Mexican Grand Prix, after he got caught up in an incident involving Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
He then ended up behind his team-mate Kimi Antonelli, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri right on his tail.
When he was asked by his race engineer Marcus Dudley to manage his tyres behind Kimi, George got obviously frustrated.
“Marcus, I’ve got a f****** car on my a**. A car much quicker than ours,” he said over the radio.
“I’m trying to hold position. I’ve got much more pace than Kimi here, and we can fight for a podium. I’m happy to give the position back if we don’t achieve it.”
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After the race George explained what was going through his mind.
“Ordinarily, we work as a team and we’re in the fight for P2 of the championship,” George said.
“I could see Kimi was struggling to get past them, and I was in his DRS train. So when my tyres were in a good place, I was ready to attack.
“Ultimately, we left it too long, and by that point, there was no need to swap positions. Either do it straight away or not at all.”
Russell conceded this situation will have to be discussed internally with the team.
“I mean, Marcus is conveying a message. He’s not the one in that position making the decisions. So we need to sit down and talk as a team.”
Russell and Antonelli ultimately switched spots on Lap 41, but George believes it was “too late” by then, because his tyres had already dropped off.
“I mean, he was clearly much quicker than us. We didn’t have the pace today, but I think if I came around the first quarter in P3, we’d have finished P3. That’s the story of the season.
“Ultimately, I’m not battling Kimi in a championship or a fight. We’re battling Ferrari and Red Bull for the championship.
“Ultimately, we finished P6 and P7 today… It could have worked out differently,” the Briton concluded.
