F1 fans blast Mercedes after blanking George Russell and praising Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona debrief

A blended image of Hamilton looking grateful in Ferrari kit and Russell looking surprised in a Mercedes hoodie — Photo: © IMAGO

Barcelona Grand Prix

Fans blast Mercedes after blanking George Russell and praising Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona debrief

Mercedes showed a lot of love for their former driver

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Friday 19 June 2026 22:45

Mercedes F1 team have left George Russell fans fuming after failing to mention the British driver in a post debriefing the Barcelona Grand Prix.

Russell crossed the line in P2 at last weekend's race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya claiming his third podium of the sport's new regulations cycle.

Since winning the season-opening Australian GP back in March, Russell has slipped down the drivers' standings as team-mate Kimi Antonelli has emerged as the favourite for the championship.

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After a record-breaking run of five consecutive grand prix wins for the Italian teenager, Antonelli's luck finally ran out in Spain last weekend when his Mercedes suffered an 'electrical shutdown' with four laps to go, ruling him out of the race entirely.

Following Antonelli's first DNF of the season, Mercedes took to LinkedIn to celebrate the success of their former star driver Lewis Hamilton, who crossed the line nearly 20 seconds ahead of Russell to secure his first grand prix win for new team Ferrari.

But whilst the Silver Arrows social team shone a light on their 'old friend' Hamilton and shared commiserations for Antonelli, Russell wasn't mentioned at all.

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Mercedes omit F1 star Russell from Barcelona GP post

In full, the post read: "A tough day for the Team, but fantastic to see our old friend Lewis Hamilton take his first win in Red for our oldest rivals Scuderia Ferrari HP.

"The Virtual Safety Car may have helped at the final stop, but Lewis drove a fantastic race and is a fully deserving winner.

"We're dissapointed that another reliability issue has cost us valuable points with Kimi and it's clear we need to strengthen in this area.

"Today proves that we've got a fight on our hands in both Championships ahead of us, but like always we'll embrace that challenge to stand back on the top step of the podium.

"Now it's time to regroup and refocus back home at Lauda Drive and come back stronger in Austria in just a few weeks."

GPFans contacted Mercedes for comment.

Though the images in the post did include snaps of Russell pouring champagne over his old team-mate and posing with fellow podium finisher Lando Norris, the 28-year-old wasn't mentioned by name in the post.

This angered fans to say the least with many flocking to the comments to question the post.

"I’m not sure I see the fairness in this approach. I don’t know the full context behind your team’s decision, but I hope future posts can provide a more balanced perspective," read one comment, whilst another noted: "I think a very tongue in cheek post, *disappointed you’ve no mention of your second driver, the VSC wouldn’t of made a difference… it’s like a bitter well done."

One comment stated: "Congratulations to Lewis on a well-deserved victory. That said, George also delivered a strong performance, securing P2 in his 100th Grand Prix with Mercedes. It would have been nice to see that acknowledged in the team's statement as well."

Another social media user simply summarised their disappointment in the F1 squad by writing beneath the post: "Wow not mentioning your other driver that finished second, poor."

The seventh round of the championship wasn't just an average race for Russell either.

The six-time grand prix winner celebrated his 100th grand prix driving for the Brackley-based outfit last time out, something which fans felt made the fact that Russell was absent from the post even worse.

But not everyone felt that way given that Russell started the 66-lap race from pole position. One individual commented: "He did start the race from 1st position and ended it in 2nd , so not an overly positive thing," which caused another to reply: "So why mention Kimis DNF then? Completely ignoring your driver getting on the podium in his 100th race for the team is diabolical."

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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F1 Ferrari Mercedes George Russell Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya Barcelona-Catalunya Grand prix