George Russell's hair helped cause his phantom rain call during the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, he has revealed. With rain threatening to hit the Barcelona circuit, Russell radioed to say that drops were beginning to fall at Turn 5 just as the first round of pitstops was coming to an end. A few laps later, however, he was told that he was the only driver reporting rain by his race engineer Marcus Dudley, with the British driver then putting forward the idea of it actually being sweat on his visor that caused the confusion. After finishing third for a first podium of the season, Russell explained how his hair helped to cause the mistaken call.
Russell's hair in rain call
"With the sweat, I had my hair dangling down in the first stint, I think I didn’t quite get it in my balaclava," Russell told media, including RacingNews365.com . "That was annoying me because it was in my peripheral vision, and then as I was sweating because it wasn't in my balaclava, it was dripping down onto my face. "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 an embarrassing one." Russell also explained another team radio moment from later on in the race. When race engineer Marcus Dudley commented that the Briton's overtake on Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was "solid work", Russell cheekily responded: "Just solid?" Russell's response prompted higher praise from Team Principal Toto Wolff, who replied: "It was pretty good!" Explaining the radio exchanges after the race, Russell added: "I think it was just a bit of a joke with Marcus, because we have a bit of back-and-forth I think. "Toto likes the big radio messages of encouragement, and Marcus and I sometimes say: 'Being nice and calm in a situation is sometimes the best way to get the result.' "It was a pretty decent move on Carlos [Sainz for third] and yeah, I thought it was a little bit more than solid, but it's just good laugh."
Most read
