George Russell was unhappy with his Mercedes race engineer at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after he had asked about team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s progress during the race
George Russell swore at his race engineer after not getting the answer he wanted to a question about Lewis Hamilton he asked over the radio during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Mercedes had nothing to fight for at the season finale other than to hold off the challenge of Ferrari for second place in the championship. They began the final race of the year just four points ahead of the Italians
What’s more, it was all extremely close for Mercedes with 16 laps to go with Russell on Charles Leclerc’s gearbox. The Brit was plainly feeling the strain as he was getting some information about the live title standings.
How is Lewis getting on?” he asked his race engineer, only to get a non-specific answer in return. “Yeah, he’s doing a good job at the moment. He’s in a fight of his own.” came the reply
Russell was annoyed at the lack of information and fumed: “What the f**k does that mean? How are we doing in the championship? Are we good?” But he was just told in response: “All we can do is the best race that we can do. We’re fine at the moment.”
While Russell was duelling with Leclerc, Hamilton was indeed in a battle of his own with Carlos Sainz. He was one place ahead of the Spaniard with 10 laps to go while Russell was making sure he was not going to lose too many points to the other Ferrari.
As it stood, it was enough for Mercedes to be able to hold on to the championship. And they were still there by the time the chequered flag flew as a late Leclerc gamble did not pay off.
Sergio Perez had a five-second time punishment however got the better of Russell and looked ready to ruin the Mercedes party. Leclerc even permitted the Red Bull past unchallenged, knowing the punishment for the Mexican allowed him the opportunity to attempt to hold up Russell however much he could.
The Ferrari driver was thinking and reacting quickly and it merited the bet. Yet, it didn’t pay off as, eventually, Russell was under four seconds behind Perez when he went too far thus the Red Bull driver was downgraded beneath him.
Further back, Hamilton completed 10th to score minor focuses while another Ferrari bet didn’t pay off. Sainz was forgotten about in the desire for a late security vehicle however one didn’t come, thus he completed external the main 10 and Mercedes had the outcome they expected to wrap as sprinters up to Red Bull.