Headline: “Do it straight away or not at all”: Russell fumes over delayed Mercedes call in Mexico
George Russell left the Foro Sol with points, a headache, and a clear message for Mercedes: if you’re going to play the team game, make the call early.
In the heat of the Mexico City Grand Prix, Russell pressed for permission to pass teammate Kimi Antonelli as he hunted a podium that was still on the table mid-race. Haas rookie Oliver Bearman was the virtual P3 at that stage, before Max Verstappen’s slick one-stop shuffled Red Bull onto the rostrum. Russell felt he had the legs to go after it — and didn’t hide it.
As heard on the world feed, Russell’s radio boiled over as Oscar Piastri loomed in the mirrors. Race engineer Marcus Dudley urged tyre management; Russell pushed back, arguing he had more pace than Antonelli and that track position now would set up a podium shot later. The exchange turned prickly, expletives and all, with the McLaren threat closing and the Mercedes pair stuck behind Bearman.
Eventually, the call came. Russell was let through Antonelli — and replied with a barbed “Great,” before getting on with it. By then, though, the tyres had taken a beating sitting in the dirty air, and the chase was already slipping away. Later, Russell handed the place back, and when the flag dropped, the McLaren and Haas had both cleared the silver cars anyway. Antonelli finished sixth, Russell seventh.
Afterwards, Russell didn’t soften the edges. “Ordinarily, we work as a team, and we’re in the fight for P2 in the championship,” he said, explaining he’d been ready to attack while sat in Antonelli’s DRS. “Ultimately, we left it too long, and by that point, there was no need to swap positions — either do it straight away or not at all.”
He was quick to shield Dudley, too. “Marcus is conveying a message. He’s not the one making the decisions,” Russell added, calling for a team sit-down. The bigger picture mattered most in his mind: “I’m not battling Kimi in a championship. We’re battling Ferrari and Red Bull for the championship.”
That context stings. Mercedes left Mexico one point behind Ferrari in the fight for second in the Constructors’ standings, with Red Bull 10 points back from the Scuderia. With margins that thin, every dithering lap counts.
There’s nuance here. Antonelli’s rookie season has rarely looked “rookie,” and he held up his end on Sunday by keeping Piastri at bay when asked. But Mexico exposed the awkward middle ground that big teams sometimes fall into: stretching stints for strategy while hesitating on team orders, only to get undercut by rivals who commit earlier. Verstappen’s one-stop was the day’s hammer blow; McLaren’s pace under Lando Norris, who won and took the championship lead, did the rest.
For Mercedes, the radio traffic also hints at a car still right on the edge with tyre temps. Dudley’s warnings about sky‑high rears were real, and the AutĂłdromo Hermanos RodrĂguez punishes anyone running too long in traffic. The moment you think about passing, the rubber says otherwise — and the tyres call the shots here as much as the pit wall.
What will rankle is the sense of a missed window. Russell believed he had the pace delta when it mattered. If that was true, the team’s choice was binary: green-light him immediately or shut it down and defend. Instead, Mercedes tried to split the difference and paid for it.
Inside the garage, none of this becomes a saga if the debrief is clean. Antonelli’s reputation won’t suffer; he executed what he was asked to do and banked a tidy P6. Russell’s frustration came from a competitive place and a constructors’ fight that’s genuinely alive. But the next time the silver cars stack up behind a slower rival with a podium in reach, expect a quicker trigger on the radio.
The calendar doesn’t leave much room for second-guessing now. With Ferrari within touching distance and Red Bull lurking, Mercedes will know they can’t give away points in the grey area between “maybe” and “go now.”
One lap earlier, and this could’ve been a very different Monday.
blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”
p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Tough one to take. We’ll go again. p>— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63)
a href=”https://twitter.com/GeorgeRussell63/status/1″>October 2025 /a>
/blockquote>
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