Two social media influencers have been slammed after they filmed and posted footage of F1 driver George Russell using a urinal at the Australian Grand Prix.
Australian twin brothers Archie and Miles Shepherd, known on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram as the 'Shepmates', were invited guests at the Melbourne track this weekend. And, while there, they bumped into Russell in the bathroom.
They filmed footage of the Mercedes driver relieving himself and posted it online. The caption of the now-deleted video read: "POV: When you meet George Russell at the urinals."
One brother could be heard in the video saying: "I just took a p*** next to George Russell. I know what you're thinking, how big is it? That stays between me and George. There's confidentiality in the men's urinal.
"What I can say is he looks really relaxed, confident stream. We were there for a while so he's obviously really hydrated and prepared for the race. He really opened the floodgates."
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But the post sparked a backlash from fans online, furious at the brothers for invading Russell's privacy. Shane McInnes, a sports presenter in Australia, called for the Shepmates to be banned from attending future F1 events.
He wrote: "The behaviour of Shepmates recording Mercedes driver George Russell at a urinal at the Aus GP, posting it on Instagram and Tik Tok and then boasting about it is disgusting and reprehensible Will they apologise? Even if they do, credentials for future races should be denied."
Russell crashed out of Sunday's race in Melbourne (AFP via Getty Images)The brothers have apologised and wrote on social media: "Our aim is to celebrate sporting heroes and commentators whilst bringing some light hearted fun to sports fans. On this occasion our content has unintentionally offended our audience and sporting fan from around the globe and is unacceptable.
"We acknowledge our absolute lapse of judgement and apologise wholeheartedly. We have reached out to George personally to apologise." Neither Russell nor his Mercedes team have commented on the matter.
The Shepmates have built up a large following and are known for videoing themselves mouthing the words to iconic lines of commentary from sporting events. They went viral in January last year for a lip-sync video of the Sky Sports commentary of Michael Smith 's nine-darter in the World Darts Championship final against Michael van Gerwen.
Meanwhile, Russell ended up having a weekend to forget. He was on course to finish seventh on Sunday but, as he hunted down Fernando Alonso ahead of him, lost control of his Mercedes and dramatically crashed - his car flipping and coming to rest on its side on the track.
Fortunately, he was unhurt. After an investigation, the stewards deemed Alonso was at fault for the incident as, even though their cars did not touch, the Spaniard drove "erratically" by braking much earlier than usual for the corner they were both about to take.
They found Alonso guilty of "potentially dangerous" driving and slapped him with a 20-second time penalty, applied to his finishing time. It meant the Aston Martin driver dropped from sixth place to eighth, though his crash meant Russell and his Mercedes team left Melbourne empty-handed.
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