Why Russell thought it was raining in the Spanish Grand Prix
General
No doubt a lot of fans flared up in front of the television when George Russell said it started raining over the track during the Spanish Grand Prix. A few laps later, it turned out that it was not raining at all, but just sweat or condensation on the Mercedes driver's visor. In the press conference attended by GPblog, the Mercedes driver explained.
"I had my hair dangling down in the first stint, I think I didn’t quite get it in my balaclava, and that was annoying me because it was in my peripheral vision," Russell says. "And then as I was sweating because it wasn't in my balaclava, it was dripping down onto my face. And then when I was braking, it was coming onto my visor. So with the grey clouds and then the spots of water on the visor, I thought it was rain. So that was a bit of a bit of an embarrassing one. But moving on."
Mutual on team radio
Moments later, there was another notable moment with the Briton. Russell, who currently sits 5th in the World Championship, overtook Carlos Sainz and then had a private chat with his race engineer, with Marcus Dudle complimenting Russell on his overtaking by saying, "Solid job". Russell then replied, "Just solid?", as Toto Wolff also weighed in on Russell's move over the team radio.
The 25-year-old driver was not really surprised about that. "I think it was just a bit of a joke with Marcus. We have a bit of back and forth, I think," he said. "Toto likes the big radio messages of encouragement, and Marcus and I sometimes say… just being nice and calm in a situation is sometimes the best way to get the result. But yeah, it was a pretty decent move on Carlos. And yeah, I thought it was a little bit more than solid, but it's just a good laugh."
For Russell, his third-place finish in Spain marked his first podium finish of the season. In 89 F1 appearances so far, he has been on the podium 10 times, nine times on behalf of Mercedes, and once on behalf of Williams at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.