Untelevised George Russell team radio after Bahrain Grand Prix heartbreak

Untelevised team radio footage from the Bahrain Grand Prix has revealed that George Russell reported a problem with his Mercedes engine moments before his retirement in Malaysia.

Russell stopped in the closing stages of Sunday’s race at Sepang while running behind the safety car.

Untelevised George Russell team radio after Bahrain GP DNF

The British driver was running third at the time – behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli – when he pulled off to the side of the track on the main straight.

Russell was officially classified 16th as he completed 90 per cent of the race distance.

However, Bahrain effectively marked his third retirement of the F1 2026 season following his previous DNFs in Canada and Belgium.

Russell’s latest stoppage has effectively ended his title hopes, with the 28-year-old trailing Antonelli by 84 points with a maximum of seven races remaining.

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Untelevised footage has revealed that Russell reported a “weird” feeling from his engine moments before he was told to stop the car.

The full exchange between Russell and race engineer Marcus Dudley went as follows:

Russell: “I mean, is the safety car going to go in or what?”

Dudley: “No, I think it’s going to be one more lap.”

Russell: “Check PU. Something feels weird. PU hot. I think PU’s broken.”

Dudley: “Just try and pull out into some clear air.”

Dudley: “OK, we need to stop the car. Stop the car.”

Russell: “Argh, f**king hell! Argh!”

Dudley: “So stop and switch off.”

Dudley: “Car is safe. Sorry about that.”

Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets following his retirement, Russell commented that he was on for a “very certain” third-place finish before his engine problem struck.

Asked if his race was looking good until that point, he said:  “Yeah, of course. It was the right strategy, solid start to the race. The podium obviously looked very certain.

“Then, obviously, the power unit issue was very disappointing.”

Asked if his high power unit temperatures were caused by spending so many laps behind the safety car, he replied: “No, I don’t think so.

“Obviously, we don’t know. There was just a sudden failure.

“The whole day felt like a bit of a faff with the delay and then the red flag and then endless laps under the safety car and then suddenly doing extra laps to allow Checo [Perez] to overtake [to unlap himself].

“It didn’t feel very F1 today and I’d have been a bit disappointed if I was in the stands watching that unfold.

“That wasn’t good. But from my side, just a bit frustrating.”

On his fading championship prospects he added: “I knew that if I wanted to come back in the championship, I needed luck on my side. It wouldn’t just be good performances.

“And here we are: not only do we not have luck on my side, I’ve got bad luck on my side.

“So I’ll just keep fighting weekend by weekend. But of course, it’s exceptionally hard to be in the fight.”

A number of cars were hit by a strange power issue on the original formation lap, forcing the race to be suspended as the FIA issued a software update to teams.

Russell remarked that the sheer complexity of the F1 2026 power units has increased the likelihood of things going wrong.

He added: “I can’t really comment on it because I don’t know exactly what the issue [was].

“It’s all just so complicated. The power units are exceptionally complicated.

“The more complicated you make things, the more there is to go wrong, so that is obviously something we need to bear in mind for the future.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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