F1 Australian GP: “I’m being attacked by my own teammate,” George Russell blasts Mercedes for being told to ‘manage’ when Lewis Hamilton’s on his tail

George Russell was in the lead, but Lewis Hamilton was hot on his tail - he clearly wasn't pleased about that, and didn't want conflicting information.

F1 Australian GP: “I’m being attacked by my own teammate,” George Russell blasts Mercedes for being told to ‘manage’ when Lewis Hamilton’s on his tail

George Russell (L) Lewis Hamilton (R)

At the start of the Australian GP, George Russell took the lead from Max Verstappen on turn 1. His Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton, also joined in on the action, and overtook his old championship rival. But soon, a safety car came out, due to a collision between Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc, due to which the latter driver retired, after beaching his car.

A Mercedes 1-2 would be a welcome surprise, but of course, the drivers were free to fight, and they soon began scrapping. That is until the race was reset again, due to another safety car. This time, it was Alex Albon crashing that caused it. The main fight was with Verstappen, yes, but it’s hard to keep your winner’s instincts under control. And obviously, Russell wanted to keep his position in the lead.

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So, when asked to ‘manage’ his gap by his engineer, he said on the radio: “You’re asking me to manage my pace and I am being attacked by my own teammate.” in a later radio message, he said: “Marcus [Dudley], I’m happy to push, there’s no problem, but don’t tell me to manage when Lewis is gonna push. Our fight is with [Max] Verstappen here.”

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Things went for bad to worse for George Russell

George Russell (L) and Lewis Hamilton (R)
George Russell (L) and Lewis Hamilton (R)

Things soon went a little bit bad to worse for George Russell. He pit under the safety car caused by Albon’s crash, but soon, the session was red flagged. This means that while he tumbled down the order, his rivals for the race would be able to pit for free under the red flag caused. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen did not pit. His chances of a win drastically reduced due to this.

But it didn’t work out for Hamilton either: Soon after the restart, he was pipped by Verstappen. Russell was running fourth on lap 16, while Verstappen was on top by almost 3.5 seconds from Hamilton! Then it got even worse, as on lap 18, he pulled to the side of the track, with a mechanical failure. The back of his car was on fire as well. A weekend that had so much promise, unraveled really quickly.

Writing on Twitter after his retirement, Russell said: “When it’s not your day, it’s not your day.” It definitely was not, though it was mostly through no fault of his own. First the teammate thing, then there was the safety car thing, and then he just retired!

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