George Russell explains viral Charles Leclerc F1 British GP cooldown room moment
George Russell explains a viral moment with Charles Leclerc from the British Grand Prix.
George Russell has shed some light on an amusing moment with Charles Leclerc in the Formula 1 British Grand Prix cooldown room that went viral.
Leclerc secured his first victory of the 2026 season with Ferrari at Silverstone, leading home the Mercedes of Russell after the race ended in anticlimactic circumstances behind the safety car.
The safety car intervention secured the win for Leclerc, while Russell was promoted into second place after Ferrari pitted Lewis Hamilton for soft tyres in anticipation of a restart that never came.
In the cooldown room following the race, there was an amusing interaction between Leclerc and Russell.
A laughing Leclerc turned to Russell and said: “who would have thought?”
Russell replied: “who would have thought? Not me!”
The exchange was a reference to Paul Rudd’s ‘Hey Look At Us’ meme which went viral after the actor’s 2019 guest appearance on the YouTube interview series Hot Ones.
Explaining the amusing moment ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, Russell said: “I saw the clip back and it's sometimes difficult to put context into the clip.
“Charles and I were texting after FP1 on Friday ahead of sprint qualifying, I’m not going to go into detail about our conversation, but when we finished 1-2, and it was like, ‘who would have thought, not us’, that was sort of in reference back to what we were talking about on the Friday.”
On what it is like to be constantly filmed in the immediate aftermath of sessions, Russell added: “Our lives are just constantly being filmed and it does feel like quite an organic moment, to be honest, in that cool-down room, because there are just so many emotions.
“Even though there's a camera there, you are just quite open and free. But it's just part of the sport now. Being filmed over here, cornered by, I'm sure, lovely Netflix.
"You want to try and be as authentic as possible and embrace the moment, but it's sometimes strange.”
Russell heads into this weekend’s 10th round of the season looking to further reduce Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead, which stands at 25 points.
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