New reports coming out have suggested that George Russell's expletive-laden team radio during the Belgian Grand Prix was censored by Formula One Management. Russell lashed out at the Mercedes team following his issues with deployment and the subsequent crash on the first lap of the race.

Russell suffered from major deployment issues at the race start on Sunday, and even said that he was without any battery power by the time he got to the Kemmel Straight on the first lap, as he was overtaken by Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Russell attempted to get the place back from Hamilton by trying a pass around the outside of Turn 5, but made contact with his former teammate instead, sending him into the gravel and ending his race. Hamilton received a time penalty for causing the collision.

After this moment, Russell snapped at the Mercedes team over the team radio for another issue with his car, blaming these problems for even being in that situation in the first place. This was only broadcast on Sky Sports Germany, and no other broadcasts.

Multiple rumors and theories came out in the last few days about why this message was not displayed on any broadcaster other than the German one, with many questioning if it was even real. But The Race has now reported that Formula One Management itself censored the radio message.

This is apparently because Formula One Management censors "extremely angry" and bad-language messages from the drivers, to "protect" them from themselves. George Russell's message was hence not even shown on the broadcast, but even removed from F1 TV completely afterwards.

Mercedes' deputy technical director Simone Resta has revealed that the team is still unsure about what exactly caused George Russell's deployment issues on the straights throughout the Belgian GP. While the problem at the race start was down to a software problem, the wider issues Russell has faced since the British GP remain unresolved.

Speaking about Russell's deployment issues, Resta said [via Motorsport.com]:

Resta reiterated that it was a software glitch that caused the deployment issues on both George Russell's and Kimi Antonelli's cars at the race start in Belgium. He also revealed that deployment issues were spotted on both Mercedes cars throughout the weekend at Turns 1 and 5.

Quick Links