George Russell Rages at Mercedes After Belgian GP Exit

George Russell vented his anger over team radio after losing battery power and being eliminated on the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver made contact with Lewis Hamilton at Turn 5 after claiming he had been swamped by several cars because of a loss of power on the exit of Turn 1.

Russell explained that his power unit had failed to harvest energy effectively. As a result, the car’s State of Charge was too low as he accelerated along the straight towards Les Combes.

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“I am out. What happened with the SoC down the straight? I had no battery down the straight,” Russell said over the radio, with several expletives censored.

Russell then described the situation as unacceptable and expressed his frustration with Mercedes’ entire Belgian weekend. He had already struggled with straight-line speed throughout practice and qualifying.

On their respective best laps in Q3, Russell lost approximately four-tenths of a second to Kimi Antonelli in the final sector alone. That performance deficit had left him unable to match his team-mate before the race began.

The contact with Lewis Hamilton immediately eliminated Russell, while Hamilton received a five-second time penalty after being found responsible for the collision. It marked Russell’s third non-score of the season following 12th place in Monaco and retirement in Canada.

Antonelli’s victory extended his advantage over Russell to 50 points, while Hamilton moved into second place in the standings. The result further increased the impact of Mercedes’ technical problems on Russell’s 2026 Formula 1 title challenge.