George Russell addressed the delay in the Mercedes team orders call during the Mexico Grand Prix after a "frustrating" race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
The British driver called for the Brackley outfit to let him pass his team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli on lap 35, arguing that he had more pace than the Italian. While Mercedes didn't enforce team orders, they confirmed Russell was "free to race". The following lap, Russell was told to manage the front brakes for a lap or two, to which he responded: "We got a Ferrari and a Haas ahead, we can fight for the podium here!"
Tensions continued to rise on lap 38 with Mercedes still not enforcing team orders. "Do you want me to let this McLaren pass?" the 27-year-old said sarcastically, before reiterating, "I'm happy to give the position back to Kimi if I can't overtake Bearman. We are just compromising both our races here, guys."
Meanwhile, McLaren's Oscar Piastri was gaining on the Mercedes driver. Russell's race engineer, Marcus Dudley, informed him that "rear surface temperatures are sky-high, George."
"Marcus, I've got an ****ing car in my ****. A car much quicker than ours. I'm trying to hold position. I've got much more pace than Kimi here and we can fight for a podium. I'm happy to give the position back if we don't achieve it," Russell said firmly.
Mercedes allowed Russell and Antonelli to swap positions on lap 41, but Russell felt that was too late.
"Yeah, I mean, I had a lot of pace in those laps and would have been able to attack Ollie, who had no DRS. Obviously, I was in the DRS train behind Kimi. I think we left it 10 laps," he told Sky Sports F1 following the race.
"By that point, my tyres overheated, my brakes were overheating. The engine was overheating. So by that point, there was sort of no point in doing it. It was either do it straight away or don't do it at all. So in the end, we deserve to finish where we did. A bit frustrating."
Russell was ultimately not able to make the overtake work, so gave the position back to his team-mate, finishing in seventh.
Photos from Mexican GP - Race
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