George Russell’s reliability woes continue with Monaco breakdown
Mercedes driver George Russell
George Russell is not having much luck with car reliability after a video emerged showing the driver and his partner pushing his Jolly out of a tunnel in Monaco.
The good news is that he could use his Mercedes G Wagon to tow the Fiat 500 Jolly.
George Russell’s reliability woes continue away from the racetrack
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Russell was first spotted behind the wheel of the vintage-style convertible Jolly in March in Monaco, with fans noting that it was the classic version of the 1958 design.
However, the Jolly’s next recorded outing – at least on X – wasn’t as fruitful.
Video on social media showed Russell and his partner Carmen pushing the car after it broke down.
Décidément, les problèmes mécaniques s’accumulent pour George Russell ces derniers temps… 😅#F1 pic.twitter.com/7J18jj0KDI
\— Le Sprint (@LeSprintEdition) June 3, 2026
Although the video only emerged this week, Russell revealed to Mercedes that it actually took place a while ago. Thankfully, he had his Mercedes G Wagon available to tow the Fiat.
“It was a little while ago actually,” he explained as he climbed off the boat and into the Monaco paddock.
“It broke down in a tunnel. I was in flipflops, and had to push it out of the tunnel.
“Roll it down the hill, tried bump starting it but it didn’t work.
“So we were, yeah, little breakdown.
“Little incident, little incident.”
He added: “Had to tow it back with the G Wagon.”
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The Fiat 500 Jolly was first released in 1958. The original version was equipped with a two-cylinder engine producing 22 hp, which allowed it to reach speeds of up to 105 km/h.
Although there is a more modern version of the car, Russell’s car is reportedly the classic version.
Russell’s Monaco breakdown came in the wake of his Canadian Grand Prix DNF, when his Mercedes W17 suffered a catastrophic battery failure.
“George’s PU failure,” explained James Allison, the Mercedes technical director, “it was an engine kill caused by a failure in the battery, which just suffered a catastrophic failure a third of the way into the race and brought George’s race to an end.
“We could see enough at the end of the race that the battery was fairly unhappy, some heat damage there, and we’ll have to figure out in the coming days and weeks exactly what caused that and put it right.”
It was a blow to Russell’s title hopes as he dropped 43 points behind his teammate and race winner Kimi Antonelli.
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