Formula 1 is a very limited sport. At a given time, only 20 people in the world have the privilege of driving the fastest cars on the planet. But because it’s one of the most popular sports in the world, there’s very little chance that the drivers’ achievements, and, more importantly, their mistakes, won’t go unnoticed. And Mercedes driver George Russell has come into the limelight more often for his mistakes than his achievements in the recent past.

When he made his way into F1, he was touted as one of the best drivers on the grid. That wasn’t untrue, and it still isn’t. He beat seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in his first year as his teammate. If that doesn’t prove he has what it takes to be the best, what does? But while he is admired for his racecraft, he has faced criticism for undermining a few of his competitors for their spacial awareness.

George Russell doesn’t trust a few drivers on the grid

In a recent video posted on F1’s YouTube channel, drivers were made to guess each other’s ratings on the F123 game. Russell was paired with Lando Norris, and when they were guessing each other’s spacial awareness, Russell said, “I don’t think I crash that much, but I’ve actually shunted quite a few times in F1.” While it’s true he hasn’t crashed much himself, he has caused other drivers to crash, one of those instances being his crashing into Valtteri Bottas at Imola in 2021 when Russell in a Williams was gunning for the Finn’s Mercedes seat.

In the build-up to this week’s Canadian GP, Russel told Motorsport.com, “[There are] maybe three drivers on the grid who you wouldn’t feel comfortable going against. There’s a trust between most of the drivers. I don’t think [those three unnamed racers] have the spatial awareness of others.” While he said he didn’t trust a few drivers on track, he isn’t innocent either. He’s caused his fair share of uncomfortable situations for others too.

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Most recently, Russell had a tussle with Max Verstappen at the 2023 Azerbaijan GP during the Sprint Race. To be fair, though, he didn’t explicitly say he wasn’t one of the three drivers he was referring to, which is what F1 fans on Twitter are claiming too.

Fans can’t stop criticizing George Russell

George Russell is one of the most talented drives on the grid when it comes to racecraft, but when spacial awareness comes into the equation, he’s not up there. So when he called out a few (unnamed) drivers on their awareness, F1 fans were having a field day calling him a hypocrite.

One user said: “Bloody hell that’s hypocrisy for you.”

Another said: “Hey Pot, meet Kettle,” referring to the idiom, the pot calling the kettle black. It’s just another way of saying that Russell shouldn’t criticize others for something he does himself.

A handful of other users stated in one way or another that he should be on the list too.

Many others were finding creative ways to say that he’s at least two of them if not all three.

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Who do you think are the three drivers Russell is referring to? And do you think he should be counted as one of them?