George Russell launched an explosive rant following his retirement from the Belgian Grand Prix. Russell crashed out on the first lap at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday after a collision with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

The Brit would later be penalised for the incident, but the collision only occurred because Russell had been exposed to the chasing pack following a first-lap engine glitch. And after the collision, Russell vented his frustration over team radio, which was not broadcast during Sunday’s race.

He fumed: “What the f*** happened with the SOC (state of battery charge) down the straight? I had no f****** battery down the straight. Guys, unacceptable. Un-f******-acceptable, this whole weekend.”

The Briton’s remarks are a reference to the series of issues he has suffered this year that have contributed to Kimi Antonelli’s lead. Russell now trails team-mate Antonelli by 50 points after the Italian teenager romped to his sixth victory from the 10 rounds so far.

And responding to Russell’s comments, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: “You have to understand that a driver is very emotional when these situations happen, but on the other side, as a Formula One driver, you are part of a very elite group, and it is quite an honour to drive for Mercedes.

“I hope the numb feeling goes away and we will try to recreate that optimism and positivity.

“All of the drivers, or at least the ones I have worked have, have difficult spells and it happens to any sportsperson. You need to find a way of motivating or building up, and George has his way, and I am definitely trying to help him with that.

“I have known George for such a long time. I understand his frustration, and the team is 100 per cent behind him.”

Reflecting on Russell’s engine problem, Wolff continued: “The power units are so complex, the way you harvest, the way you deploy, and the interaction from the driver.

“We have a super-strong package, and we are doing our best to fix the reliability problems, but with new regulations sometimes that happens.

“With George, there was definitely something on the engine that we have identified, that meant he had less energy to deploy into turn 18.

“It’s good that we spotted it here because, in Budapest, which is not an energy-starved circuit, it would have been more difficult to identify. But it still doesn’t make it better for him and that probably accounted for half the gap, or a little bit more, that he had to Kimi.”