F1 star baffled over decision to censor George Russell's team radio

Mercedes

F1 star baffled over decision to censor George Russell's team radio

George Russell was really not happy with his car

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 24 July 2026 15:57

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Former F1 driver David Coulthard has slammed F1 for not showing George Russell's full radio message after his retirement from the Belgian Grand Prix.

Russell crashed out on lap one of the race, after colliding with Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, in what was a huge blow to his championship chances.

The Brit now sits 50 points behind Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the drivers' championship, and knows that he must start picking up wins soon or his title dream will be over for this year.

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But he has been plagued by issues to his Mercedes car. Russell struggled with straight-line speed compared to Antonelli at Spa, stating after qualifying that he was noticing discrepancies in the data between his car and Antonelli's on the straights.

This was then evident during the race, when Russell's car appeared to slow towards the end of the Kemmel Straight on lap one, putting him in a battle with a number of drivers for fourth position.

That was what led to the battle with Hamilton, ultimately resulting in Russell's retirement from the race.

When he crashed out, Russell launched into a scathing X-rated rant on his team radio about his car, which was not shown on the F1 broadcast at the time.

Later, Russell took to media once again to explain his car's issues, and seemed on the verge of tears, while claiming that it was the lack of power that had led to his retirement, rather than any wrongdoing from Hamilton.

Should swear words be shown on F1 broadcast?

Now, former Red Bull and McLaren driver Coulthard has suggested that fans wanted to see Russell's full radio message, whether it was full of expletives or not.

"Well, SOC - state of charge - of course, and as we now know from the further debrief that came from the weekend, George didn't get a recharge in braking into turn one," Coulthard explained about Russell's retirement on the Up to Speed podcast. "That meant he had no sort of battery pack when he came out of Eau Rouge, and that's where he got sort of swamped with cars and then the racing incident / five-second penalty for Lewis Hamilton occurred.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have had a problem with that being broadcast, because at the end of the day, you know, human beings will say what they say in the moment of frustration. And okay, profanity isn't taught in school, but I suspect most people at some point - I'm not going to say all, of course - but I suspect most people have said a little F-bomb or something like that when they're frustrated.

"So, I have a problem with that being beeped out, and I think it just shows what we would all be thinking in that situation."