A masked F1 star sneaked into the grandstands to watch first practice at the Mexican Grand Prix on Friday, before taking a selfie of him hiding in plain sight within the crowd.
Sporting a green wrestling mask and a thick black overcoat, the driver went incognito in the stands so that he could watch F1 cars on track for the first time in years.
There is plenty riding on the Mexican Grand Prix after a dramatic race in Austin last weekend, which saw Max Verstappen close the gap on McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to set up a three-way tussle for the world title.
The masked driver in Mexico was none other than Mercedes star George Russell, who took to social media to evidence his sneaky undercover mission on Friday.
Sharing a selfie of him in the grandstand, Russell posted on Instagram: ‘Haven’t watched F1 cars on track in years, so found a way to sneak into the stands while Fred was driving my car.’
His undercover stunt proved popular among fans, with his Instagram post chalking up almost a million likes at the time of writing.
A masked F1 star sneaked into the stands to watch first practice at the Mexican Grand Prix
‘Undercover George!’: The masked driver was none other than Mercedes star George Russell
F1’s official Instagram account later shared footage of the masked mission, titled ‘Undercover George’.
‘Someone’s borrowing my car, I’ve not seen an F1 car on track for a long, long time so let’s go,’ Russell said at the start of the video, before putting on the mask, black glasses and thick jacket.
The Mercedes driver buried his chin in the coat as he walked up the grandstand steps, attempting to conceal his identity.
He then took his seat and started recording footage of the cars on his phone, before risking the undercover mission by saying, ‘That’s my car,’ to the person behind the camera.
After a few tiny interactions with fans, Russell bolted down the steps and took off his mask, delighted he had managed to watch first practice.
‘That was warm! I enjoyed that,’ he said, before heading towards security.
Russell, who earlier this month signed a new £30million per year deal at the Silver Arrows, jumped over the security barriers to the surprise of security staff.
Security held out an arm to stop him before realising it was Russell – giving him a thumbs up as he jogged through.
‘I enjoyed that a lot,’ Russell said. ‘To be honest, I’ve not seen an F1 car on track for years and years. So it was cool. Good to see what everyone else sees.’
He was keen to watch Frederik Vesti driving his Mercedes car (above) during first practice
Russell, pictured in Austin, Texas, is now armed with a fresh £30million-per-deal at Mercedes
Russell also spoke about the stunt in a short interview with Sky Sports on Friday.
‘When you’re an F1 driver, you can’t watch F1. It’s rare you get the chance to go out,’ he said.
‘But I tried to do something semi-normal and you know what, I didn’t get recognised too much. And I enjoyed it!’
