George Russell: Australia was a disaster waiting to happen – F1 needs to act

George Russell has called for an automated safety car system in Formula One to prevent ‘a disaster waiting to happen’ following his crash in Australia.

The Mercedes driver crashed on the penultimate lap of the Albert Park race and was left helpless in his upturned car, in a section of the track where drivers reach speeds in excess of 150 mph.

It took over 10 seconds for the safety car to come out, during which time Russell - who was facing away from the oncoming traffic - could be heard on his radio, in an increasing state of panic. In total he called for a red flag 12 times.

“It was an incredible position to be in,” Russell recalled ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka. “You’re on a blind bend, 250 kilometres per hour, right on the racing line with the car half upside down. You’re waiting for a disaster to happen.

“Fortunately, I had a 10-second gap behind me. And I think it was 10 or 12 seconds before the safety car came out. But in the space of 10 seconds you can have five, six, seven cars — if that was on lap one of the race — and probably been hit numerous times even with the yellow flag.”

Russell called for a quicker response time and the use of technology to help get the safety car out faster. Any such changes would be down to FIA, the governing body, rather than F1.

“We need to find a way that if a car is in a danger zone, it’s automated straight away, within half a second or so, because those seconds count and lives are at risk,” he said. “It’s time with the technology that we have now to make steps in this area.”

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was later given a 20-second time penalty for what stewards called an “unusual manoeuvre” which led to the crash. Not everyone agreed with the penalty, arguing the Spaniard was entitled to defend in the way he did. But Russell, speaking for the first time since that penalty was applied, said it was important the stewards acted.

“When we start braking in the middle of the straight, downshifting, accelerating, upshifting again, then braking again, I think that goes beyond the realm of adjusting your line,” Russell said, calling it “one step too far.”

“I don’t think what Fernando did was extraordinarily dangerous, but it will open up a can of worms if it wasn’t penalised.”

Asked whether he had talked to Alonso about the incident, Russell said that they had randomly bumped into each other in a coffee shop recently but the matter had not come up. He added, jokingly, that Alonso had not bought him his coffee, “which was probably the least that could have happened.”

‘There’s still plenty to understand’

Speaking about Mercedes’ chances at Suzuka after what was overall a terrible race for the Brackley team in Australia, with Hamilton retiring from ninth and Russell crashing out while fighting for sixth, Russell warned it could be another lean weekend.

“[We’re] definitely performing stronger in the low-speed corners, and struggling a bit in the high-speed corners, of which there’s more in Jeddah, in Melbourne, in Suzuka,” he said. “You know, these are the faster circuits of the season.”

Ominously, Russell echoed what Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said in Australia about the car’s on-track performance not tallying with what the team are seeing in their simulations. This has been a major problem for the last two seasons and one they hoped they had put behind them this year.

“There’s still plenty to understand,” Russell admitted. “[But] it’s still early days. We know we’re not where we want to be. But everybody’s working really hard to, you know, improve the correlation, get a bit closer to what we’re seeing at the factory on the simulator and find some performance.”