25-year-old F1 driver was absolutely fuming on team radio yesterday over pit strategy

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Mercedes driver George Russell was not impressed with his team’s pit strategy during the Mexico City Grand Prix.

His radio message was heard on Sky Sports F1 (29/10 8:42pm) as he chased down the two Ferraris for some precious points yesterday.

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was never going to be a track where teams could push their cars to the limit for 71 laps.

It meant teams had to be very clever with their strategies and drivers had to manage their tyres accordingly.

They also had to keep their cars at the right temperature which proved tricky given how hot the track was.

However, the break that arrived almost exactly halfway through the race caused by the red flag after Kevin Magnussen’s huge crash altered everyone’s plans.

It saw Lando Norris produce one of the best drives of his F1 career as he stormed through the grid.

It meant that the anger felt by George Russell due to his pit strategy in Mexico didn’t end up having a huge impact.

The 25-year-old’s race pace after the restart wasn’t where he wanted it to be sadly.

Russell fuming with pit strategy in Mexico

Before the red flag, each team was trying to time their mandatory pit stop correctly knowing that if they got it right, they would only need to change their tyres once.

The looming threat was Lando Norris, who was the only driver who started on the soft tyres and switched to the hards early on, undercutting half the grid.

Mercedes told Russell to pit to cover off the McLaren driver in Mexico, much to the Brit’s fury.

Speaking over the radio after his pit stop, Russell said: “Why have we pitted right behind [Alex] Albon? Surely, we could have overtook him.

His team engineer replied: “We were at risk from [Lando] Norris behind on that hard tyre.”

It wasn’t a popular answer with the one-time race winner who abruptly ended the conversation and said: “We weren’t at risk, he had to box.”

Norris ended up putting during the safety brought out following Magnussen’s crash before the red flag which cost him several places.

He then had a poor start that saw him drop to 14^th, but he still caught back up to Russell in the closing stages and produced a fine overtaking move to get past him.

It was a frustrating day for Russell, especially as Lewis Hamilton showed what could be done in the Mercedes as he finished best of the rest behind Max Verstappen.

He’ll be excited to return to Brazil this weekend where he won the only F1 race of his career so far.