F1 News: George Russell 'completely wrong' in Austrian Grand Prix controversy as insider goes in hard

George Russell looks sad on the phone — Photo: © IMAGO

Austrian Grand Prix

George Russell 'completely wrong' in Austrian Grand Prix controversy as F1 insider goes in hard

Russell has divided the paddock over his actions in Austria

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 30 June 2026 21:45

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Mercedes F1 star George Russell has been told he should do the honourable thing and request changes to the FIA rulebook after benefiting from yellow flag confusion at the Austrian Grand Prix.

During qualifying at the Red Bull Ring last weekend, it was Charles Leclerc who appeared to have claimed pole position, but thanks to a crash for Max Verstappen, a yellow flag was waved and Russell was able to sneak in one last flying lap to claim the top spot on the grid for Sunday's race.

After Verstappen had been sent straight through the gravel and into the wall at Turn 9, those left out on track could have been forgiven for assuming the session would be red flagged, or at least for there to have been double yellows waved instantly.

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However, the very last moments of qualifying continued under single yellow flag conditions, so although Russell lifted where necessary on his lap, he was still able to beat Leclerc's time and clinch pole before the FIA eventually switched to double-waved yellows 15 seconds later.

Some put Russell's ability to exploit the single yellow conditions to his advantage down to experience, with teenage team-mate Kimi Antonelli confused by the situation, abandoning his lap under the impression that double-waved yellows had been issued.

Russell faces pressure to speak out as GPDA director

The 28-year-old Silver Arrows star went on to win Sunday's race and moved back up to P2 in the drivers' championship as a result, so he certainly benefited from Saturday's yellow flag controversy.

But former F1 team manager Peter Windsor is calling for Russell to kickstart the conversation about how dangerous his decision to not abandon his lap after seeing an incident on track could have been.

In a video posted to YouTube following the Austrian GP, Windsor said: "I'd have a lot more respect for George if he come out this morning and said, 'Look, I'm president of the GPDA, I do care about safety."

Russell is in fact a director of the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers' Association) not the president, but alongside fellow F1 star Carlos Sainz and others, he plays a large role in fighting for what is in the best interest of the current grid.

Turning his attention back to what he thinks Russell should be doing in his GPDA role after the yellow-flag incident in Spielberg, Windsor suggested Russell should say: " I was clever, and I got away with it. And I do think that Austria showed that we have got to rewrite these rules, and we've got to make them much clearer, because I went through on the basis it was a single yellow. All I needed to do was lift, and I went through, and I got the pole, and that's wrong, quite clearly, because I know everybody out there knows that it could have been much worse than it was, and I could have hurt myself, or I could have hurt somebody else, or an animal. And I think I'm calling now for that rule to be changed, and it needs to be a lot more accurate in terms of the types of corner involved and the speeds involved.'

"If he said that, I'd have a lot more respect for him. I tell you why Kimi thought it was double yellow. It was a big shunt, and it was 300 km/h, that's why he thought it was double yellow, because why wouldn't it be double yellow? It should have been an instant red."

Russell clinched pole by only partially lifting under a yellow flag, Antonelli abandoned his lap entirely

Where many such as Sky F1's Anthony Davidson praised Russell for his quick thinking after seeing the session had only been yellow flagged, Windsor felt the decision to push for pole position under such conditions was 'completely wrong'.

"If George has got the clarity of thought to think, 'oh, they've made a mistake, they put out the single for sure, it's going to be double in a second.' That's wrong, that's completely wrong in my view, because he doesn't know what's happening over that brow.

"This is a Red Bull fever circuit. How does he know some marshal wouldn't have been jumping over the fence to get to the beloved Max Verstappen? How does he know there wasn't.. I keep painting the point, wasn't some animal roaming around the track? How does he know these things?"

“That's why I say the best thing George could do this morning is to say, ‘as President of the GPDA, we need to re-look at the single double yellow thing, because it's completely wrong, and I was lucky to get away with it in Austria. Bang, I shouldn't be able to get away with that again.' That's what George should be saying, and guess what, he'd be hero, I think, if he said that, but I don't believe he will, but that's what I think he should be doing.”

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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 Max Verstappen Mercedes FIA George Russell Austrian Grand Prix