Russell Urges F1 To Make Change As People Up And Down Paddock Fall Sick

Wednesday, 29 November 2023 at 06:00

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George Russell demands an alteration in the 2023 F1 calendar following the super exhausting end of the 2023 season.

The last four weeks of the season have been very challenging for everyone who is part of F1 and travels from one event to another.

Drivers and their teams flew from Sao Paulo to Las Vegas, where they adjusted to a reversed time zone, and then the week right after that, they flew to Abu Dhabi, where they yet again had to adjust to a shift in time zone, which of course, is not too good for the human body.

The Red Bull Racing team principal mentioned everybody was "leaving Vegas slightly f****d," and that was still the week ahead of the race in Abu Dhabi.

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George Russell told the media at Yas Marina Circuit it is easier for drivers to deal with these situations than for their teams. If we only look at traveling, F1 drivers tend to fly business or first class while their mechanics and engineers fly economy. Russell said about drivers:

"The way we travel, we're in a very fortunate position, but everybody up and down the paddock - I've got so many mechanics who are ill, people in the engineers’ office, just really struggling with the constant time zone shifts, the body not knowing where you are, eating at different times, staying in different hotels, different environments, different climates."

The Mercedes driver explained it is unhealthy for people to have to tolerate such shifts in time zones. Apparently there are some talks about possible changes already in process.

"The body's getting confused. I think there are talks for next year about personnel being regulated that they can't do every single race"

The 25-year-old himself was affected when he got a big fever in Las Vegas which he just could not recover from and then in Abu Dhabi, he suffered from a "horrendous cough." Russell added:

"Then I've had a horrendous cough that stayed with me all week in the car. I was coughing every single lap but when you're strapped into the car, you can't breathe. It was pretty miserable"