Aussie influencers delete ‘rephrensible’ urinal video of George Russell
Popular Aussie social media influencers Shepmates have apologised for posting a video of F1 star George Russell that was slammed by fans.
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Australian social media content creators ‘Shepmates’ have apologised after being criticised for invading the privacy of a star F1 driver in a now-deleted video at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
On Saturday, Shepmates posted a video to their TikTok account captioned “POV: When you meet George Russell at the urinals”.
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The clip shows one of the Shepmates duo, twins Archie and Miles Shepherd, standing next to Mercedes driver George Russell in what appears to be a toilet block at Melbourne’s Albert Park.
“So I just took a piss next to George Russell,” he says later in the video.
“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.
“Keen to see his time trial and go George.”
Shepmates, who rose to prominence for their lip-syncing to the commentary of iconic sporting moments, attended the Australian Grand Prix on Friday on behalf of race broadcaster Paramount Plus.
Shepmates shared a joint Instagram post with Paramount Plus, wearing jumpsuits with the broadcaster’s logo as they pretended to be a “pit crew”.
They also collaborated for a video with Sky Sports commentator David Croft.
It attracted widespread criticism on social media for being an inappropriate invasion of Russell’s privacy.
Radio host and broadcaster Shane McInnes wrote on X: “The behaviour of @shepmates recording Mercedes driver George Russell at a urinal at the #AusGP, posting it on 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.”
One fan posted: “Horribly disgusting that people [@shepmates] attending the gp on behalf of an official sponsor [@ParamountPlusAU] are invading and breaching the privacy of a driver in this manner.
A second said: “Posting a video of a man using the bathroom for some f***ng likes is insane.
“Just because he’s famous does not mean you have any sort of right to film an intimate moment like that. @shepmates you are absolutely disgusting.”
A third person said: “Filming a driver (or even a normal person) in a private place is so not on.”
Shepmates have 291,000 followers on Instagram and 476,000 followers on TikTok.
In a statement provided to news.com.au, Archie and Miles apoolgised wholeheartedly for the video.
“Our aim is to celebrate sporting heroes and commentators whilst bringing some light hearted fun to sports fans,” they said.
“On this occasion our content has unintentionally offended our audience and sporting fans from around the globe.
“We acknowledge our absolute lapse of judgement and apologise wholeheartedly. We have reached out to George to personally apologise.”
What happens off the track has become just as popular — with advertisers and social media influencers flocking to Melbourne and attending events such as Glamour on the Grid.
The Australian Grand Prix is expected to break last year’s crowd record with more than 400,000 people attending Albert Park across the weekend.
Russell was on track to finish inside the top 10 in Sunday’s race before he spun and crashed out on the final lap
Carlos Sainz won from Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris after Max Verstappen was ruled out of the race when his car started smoking in the early stages.
Originally published as Aussie influencers delete ‘rephrensible’ urinal video of George Russell
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