George Russell’s angry radio messages in Brazil say a lot about his F1 season.
Lando Norris claimed an impressive pole position at the 2026 Sao Paulo GP, but George Russell was left thinking about what could have been.
The Mercedes driver was one of the fastest in the tricky rainy conditions in Brazil, but his best lap got canceled by the team. As the rain got worse, George was frustrated on the team radio, realizing he might have snatched pole.
Starting 2026 as a favorite for the title in a top car, George’s season has taken a tough turn. Meanwhile, his teammate Kimi Antonelli raced ahead to become F1’s youngest-ever champion last weekend in Mexico, while George is now trying to rebuild his reputation.
Sao Paulo looked like a great chance for George to bounce back. He will start with a five-place penalty tomorrow because of a power unit change, but after a tough year, he really wanted to be the fastest.
With qualifying delayed by passing rainstorms, top drivers like Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc didn’t push too hard since they had penalties to serve anyway. This left George battling for pole in the final round with Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli.
For much of the session, George was quickest, but then Lando took the lead late on. George looked set to fight back when the team told him to slow down because the rain was getting heavier.
When George realized he might have had the time to finish his lap, he didn’t hide his frustration on the radio. “Mate, you told me to back off, what the hell?!” he said angrily. Team boss Toto Wolff stepped in, saying, “George, you’re P2.” George replied, “P2?! I don’t want to be P2, I want to be P1! That was a P1 lap!”
Later, George reflected on missing out on pole after his engineer told him he was 0.25 seconds faster before aborting the lap. “It’s the first time in a while I felt confident in the car,” he said. “I actually felt more confident in the wet than in the dry. I don’t really know why, but I felt like myself, fighting for pole every lap. But when it counted, we didn’t get it right.”
Toto Wolff also spoke to the media to calm things down. “If we had a crystal ball to know whether he should back off or not, that would help,” he said. “It was a tough call, about 50-50. He was catching Albon and was just 18 milliseconds ahead of Norris, so maybe it wouldn’t have been enough for pole. But he drove brilliantly and deserved to be on pole. Today, George was in a league of his own.”