After his smash-up, George Russell was left pleading for the Australian Grand Prix to be stopped. Following a collision, the Mercedes came to rest on its side in the middle of the track.
George Russell, who was left fearing for his life during the Australian Grand Prix, wants Formula 1 to implement an automated safety car system.
He attempted to overtake Fernando Alonso in the latter stages of the Melbourne race, but ultimately crashed out. His Mercedes smashed into a wall and came to rest on its side in the middle of the track after he lost control of it.
The Briton’s fear was evident in a terrifying radio message to his team. Fearing he was a sitting duck on the way out of a fast-moving corner with poor visibility, he begged for a red flag.
The virtual safety car system activated a few seconds after the race continued unabated. By then, Russell had been passed by Lance Stroll, who fortunately had received a heads-up about the danger from his race engineer Ben Michell.
There was a chance the impact was lethal. Anthoine Hubert, a Formula 2 driver, and Dilano van’t Hoff, a FRECA racer, both died in recent years at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium when their cars were struck by another vehicle at a high speed following separate crashes.
Russell wants the safety car protocol changed because he was afraid of a similar situation when he was stranded in the cockpit of his W15 at Albert Park. The director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association stated: “It was a very uncomfortable situation to be in.
“You’re on a blind bend, right on the racing line, with the car half upside down, waiting for something bad to happen. Cars are approaching at 250 km/h. Luckily, I had a 10-second buffer behind me, and the virtual safety car appeared in maybe 10 or 12 seconds.
“But if that had happened on the first lap of the race, you could have five, six, or seven cars in ten seconds, and even with the yellow flag, I would have probably been hit multiple times. Carlos Sainz in 2022 in Japan: “We’ve seen close incidents before where a car comes back [onto the track after a crash].”
“I believe we need to figure out a way where, in the event that a car is in a danger zone, an automated VSC could activate in about half a second, as those are critical seconds. Human lives are in jeopardy. It’s something we’ve witnessed many times at Spa: cars aquaplaning. With the advancement of technology, I believe it is imperative that we take action in this area.”
This collision may cause changes to the corner where Russell crashed. A number of drivers, including Australian racer Daniel Ricciardo, who called the corner “an amazing corner” but acknowledged that “the safety of it is bad,” have called for increased safety.
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