04/04/2024
NEWS STORY
George Russell claims that failure to punish Fernando Alonso for his tactics in Melbourne would have opened a can of worms for motorsport in general.
The Briton was pursuing the Spaniard when - not for the first time - he veered off track and crashed in the final moments of the race. He and his team subsequently claimed that the incident had occurred because the veteran Aston Martin driver had brake tested him.
Though the stewards could find no evidence of brake testing they did feel that his tactics were "potentially dangerous" and hit him with a 20s penalty that dropped him from 6th to 8th.
While Alonso still denies the move, Russell insists than not acting on the incident could cause repercussions not just in F1 but throughout motorsport.
"(It was) obviously a bit of a strange situation that happened last week," said Russell at today's press conference. "As I said at the time, totally caught by surprise. I was actually looking at the steering wheel, making a switch change in the straight, which, you know, we all do across the lap. And when I looked up, I was in Fernando's gearbox and it was sort of too late. And then next thing I know I'm in the wall.
"I think, if it were not to have been penalised, it would have really opened the kind of worms for the rest of the season," he continued, "and in junior categories, of saying, you know, are you allowed to brake in a straight? Are you allowed to slow down, change gear, accelerate, do something semi-erratic?
"I don't take anything personally with what happened with Fernando," he insisted. "And it probably had bigger consequences than it should have. But as I said, if it went unpenalised, can you just break in the middle of a straight? I don't know. So, yeah, nothing more to say really."
However, asked about the rights and wrongs of what Alonso was trying to do in defending his position, Russell replied: "Every driver is open to change their line, brake earlier, power through the corner, do whatever. When we start braking in the middle of a straight, downshifting, accelerating, upshifting again, then braking again for a corner, I think that goes beyond the realms of adjusting your line.
"And as I said, I was actually looking at my steering wheel in that straight as I've done every single lap prior. And when I looked up a hundred metres before the corner, I realised I was right behind Fernando rather than the half a second that I was.
"You know, we've got so many duties to take care of when we're driving, you know, looking, going around the race track, changing all of the settings on the steering wheel, making sure you're in the right engine mode, taking care of the tyres, talking to your engineer, managing the deltas on your steering wheel when it's an in-lap, out-lap, safety car, whatever it may be.
"If you add into the mix, you're allowed to brake in the middle of the straight to gain a tactical, or get a tactical advantage, I think that is maybe one step too far. And the same when we talk about moving down the straight to get out of the slipstream. There was lots of talk about that in the past. It's not overly dangerous, but it has a concertina effect if everybody's moving around. And if suddenly if you brake test somebody and there's 10 cars behind, it probably has a greater effect by the 10th driver than it does for the first driver behind. So as I said, I don't think what Fernando did was extraordinarily dangerous, but it will open a can of worms if it wasn't penalised."
"I think that corner needs to be reviewed," said race winner Carlos Sainz, "which is already something I said in the last driver's briefing. It's not the first time that after a collision, the car comes back into the track and it's a corner that we're doing 250 kph and it's blind.
"I just don't like the last few incidents that we've seen in this corner, also in other categories. It just doesn't give me a very good feeling. It's a great corner, don't get me wrong. I love driving in a qualifying lap. It's just that when it comes to racing, there's been just too many examples of a car coming back onto a track and being very narrow there. And I just think it's a corner that needs to be a bit reviewed."
"The corner's amazing," said Russell, "probably one of the best corners on that circuit, so I wouldn't want to see that corner change, but it is true. If you hit that wall, you just bounce back into the track. So, you know, it's not just that corner. I think all... all circuits that have the barriers in certain positions, if it's going to propel you back onto the circuit, that's obviously not good.
"We don't want to have big run-offs, we don't want to have tarmac runoffs. You know, I think everything is correct. Just the position of that wall, even if it's, you know, closer to the track, but in line with the circuit, at least you wouldn't bounce off into the racing line."
Other than the brake test, the big talking point after the incident was the failure to stop the race whilst Russell was trapped in his upturned car in the middle of the track.
"It was an incredibly uncomfortable position to be in," said Russell, "you know, you're on a blind bend, 250 kilometres an hour, right on the racing line with the car half upside down, you know, waiting for 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.
"I mean, we've seen close incidents before where a car comes back, Carlos in '22 in Japan. I think we need to find a way that if a car is in a danger zone, automated, you know, VSC straight away, you know, within, you know, half a second or so because those seconds count. And, you know, lives are at risk. We've seen it, you know, Spa numerous times in the past, cars, aquaplaning. Yeah, I think it's time with the technology that we have to make steps in this area."
Asked if he had spoken to Alonso since, Russell admitted: "We actually saw each other back home, just coincidentally bumped into each other in a coffee shop..."
"Did you brake test him there or not?" laughed Max Verstappen.
"No," said Russell, "as I said before, it's nothing personal. When the helmet's on, we're all fighters and competing. And when the helmet's off, you have respect for one another. So, of course, a lot of emotions in the moment. But, you know, we both moved forward from this."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Suzuka here.