George Russell appearance prompts complaints from F1 rivals

Mercedes F1 star George Russell has revealed that his virtual appearance before a race weekend caused some of his rivals to complain that he was distracting them.

Russell has been in fine form for the Silver Arrows in 2025. The 27-year-old has demonstrated his ability to lead the team as the senior driver, sitting in fourth on 194 points in the drivers' standings.

While the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri might be too far ahead to catch, Max Verstappen sits just 36 points ahead of the Brit in third - someone that Russell no doubt has in his sights.

Although he will need to get the better of the Dutchman on the track, any psychological advantage that a driver can get over their rival could be crucial.

Russell distracting his F1 rivals

And that was seemingly the case in a previous race, where Russell revealed his appearance on the screens in the hotel rooms of his rivals caused a bit of a stir.

“Those movies in the hotel rooms are always quite good as I had one of my own adverts that was playing in the hotel,” Russell said at a Marriott Bonvoy event.

“It was in one of the Ritz-Carlton hotels where all of the drivers stay.

“They all came up to me the following day saying I was distracting them.

“Every time they walked into their room I was just on the TV screen talking to them.

“Maybe I could do a personalised messaged to them, like ‘you will not win the race this weekend’ or something, so maybe we can do that!”

Russell's rivals might well need to turn their TVs off this weekend when they land in Baku as they look to come out on top at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

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