Russell Gives Honest Opinion On Hamilton's Incident From FP2

Friday, 08 March 2024 at 21:00

George Russell gave his two cents on the incident between Lewis Hamilton and Logan Sargeant, in which Mercedes was fined €15,000.

The Suadi Arabian Grand Prix weekend hasn't gone well for Lewis Hamilton so far. Besides struggling with his car's setup and losing his rear, which he couldn't trust, he received a warning from stewards following the FP2 session.

The seven-time World Champion heavily impeded Logan Sargeant, who was on a fast lap. The American driver had to take an "evasive action" and steered into a run-off area.

Fortunately, nothing happened, but if there was no runoff area (which there isn't on some other places around the track), it would have resulted in a high-speed crash. Geroge Russell told the media:

"It's always difficult in Jeddah. You can't have it all. It's one of the best circuits to drive, so exhilarating but you can't see. So it's definitely challenging."

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Jeddah Corniche Circuit is a very high-speed street circuit. However, being a street circuit means it is closely surrounded by walls, and drivers literally can't see what's behind the corner.

"The FIA at the start of the year introduced something on our steering wheel to show us the car in front and the car behind and the gaps, which has been a real improvement."

Throughout the last couple of seasons, there have been so many impeding incidents that FIA came up with the idea that drivers should see a delta between the car in front of them and right behind them as well.

The problem is that Hamilton had Carlos Sainz, who was on a cool-down lap right behind him. Consequently, his steering wheel didn't show the fast-approaching Williams driver. Russell explained:

"But the thing is, if you have two cars behind on a slow lap, and a car travelling at 200mph ten seconds behind and he passes through, I think that's kind of what happened with Lewis and Sargeant, you'll have one car behind, and it will say that the direct driver who is behind.

"But, you don't know who is three or four cars behind that on a push lap. But definitely a real improvement in terms of the safety in that regard."