Just two weeks ago, Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from the most recent Formula One Sprint race, and George Russell is concerned that this could happen at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
As Formula 1 prepares for its first Sprint weekend since the US GP was clouded by post-race penalties, George Russell believes more disqualifications may occur at this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc placed sixth on the road while Lewis Hamilton finished second in that Austin race. However, after their car was discovered to have violated Formula One regulations, both of those results and the points that went along with them were later taken away.
The planks beneath their cars showed excessive wear from being jostled around on the uneven Texas circuit. Most people who explained what had happened agreed that the fact that it was a Sprint weekend was a significant factor.
Not enough information was collected for Mercedes and Ferrari to make the best choices regarding the ride height of their cars, as practice sessions are limited to one hour before car setups are fixed for the entire weekend.
Russell believes there’s a chance it will happen again this weekend at Interlagos following a single 60-minute practice session on Friday. The British driver, whose Mercedes was not checked for plank wear following the Austin race, said, “It’s going to be really challenging.”
“And this is a big, big issue with the Sprint race weekends because, as we said in Austin, we ended practice, we did our checks and there was no plank wear and we thought we were in the clear.
“And then with a small change of wind direction, putting in 100 kilos of fuel in the car for the first time, some laps in traffic, some laps not in traffic on a really bumpy circuit, we suddenly found ourselves in an issue we weren’t expecting. I’ve got to be honest, on a track like this some teams might find themselves in the same place, So that’s just part of a game in a Sprint race.”
Mercedes enter a race weekend as the defending champions from the previous year for the first and only time this season. Russell defeated Hamilton to win the 2022 Sao Paulo race, and he used Max Verstappen’s struggles that weekend due to a subpar setup on his Red Bull as an illustration of the impact a setup can have.
“This just goes to show that in these Sprint races, if you were to make a bad choice, you are locked in and you can’t rectify those mistakes,” he continued. “Red Bull definitely took a step backwards this time last year.” There are benefits and drawbacks to that.
“I personally don’t like it because this is the pinnacle – Formula 1. These cars are so complex, we’ve got so many brilliant engineers here working to improve the car that to be locked in after a 60 minute session, if there’s a red flag or delays or if it’s wet, you’re going in totally blind-sided.”
Leave a Reply