Russell reveals lap one error which left him unable to drink all race

In brief

Russell caused drinks system failure

“I made it a little bit more tricky because under the Safety Car, I peered over the cockpit to check the front wing and in doing so, pulled my drinks tube out,” Russell said. “So I lost the drinks tube on the first lap, so I was a bit thirsty.”

Air temperatures reached 23C during the race and conditions in Russell’s cockpit would have been much hotter, as the asphalt hit over 48C.

Sergio Perez was also unable to drink during the previous race at the Circuit of the Americas. “I think Checo was making a big deal out of in Austin,” Russell joked.

Steiner: Schumacher retirement a “pure racing incident”

Haas team principal Günther Steiner said Mick Schumacher‘s lap one retirement from the Mexico City Grand Prix was no particular driver’s fault.

“This was a pure racing accident, it was pretty simple,” said Steiner. “I think it was at turn one, an Alpine was squeezed into the middle on both sides, and Mick went over the wheel and broke the suspension.

“These things happen,” he continued, describing the retirement as Schumacher’s “first one in these circumstances.”

Ocon: “three cars in the same corner never works”

Esteban Ocon said his collisions with Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda, which ended both drivers’ races, was probably “triggered by Bottas” as the Mercedes driver was spun around on track.

Ocon described the chaos which unfolded as Bottas spun ahead of him. “There was Fernando [Alonso] closing on the right side, so that pushed Mick towards me. And then you had Yuki there with not much space, so there’s not much more I could have done on my side.

He said he was “sorry that we’ve collided like that” but there “was nothing that I could have done – and three cars in the same corner never works, really.”

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

If Larson does do the #Indy500 next year, hypothetically you could have a 9-driver rookie class that includes:

Larson-Cup champ
Johnson-7x champ
Grosjean-F1 vet

Kirkwood, Malukas, DeFrancesco, Ilott, Lundgaard-projected ‘22 ROTY field

Enerson-second attempt to qualify

— Tony DiZinno (@tonydizinno) November 8, 2021

The @fia Disability & Accessibility Commission made a video last year about @a_seguii & his role as scrutineer at the Mexican @F1. The video has inspired a new disabled marshal to join our sport. Juan Manuel is working alongside Andres this weekend in 🇲🇽#motorsportforeveryone pic.twitter.com/CjcTlp6QQR

— Nathalie McGloin (@nathaliemcgloin) November 7, 2021

Here it is, as we did in the Italian F4 Championship; Full house in the 🇩🇪 German F4 Championship as well!

‘21 German F4 Driver✅, Rookie✅ and Team Champion✅! An incredible, historic result as never before did a team manage to collect six F4 titles in one year! 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/JMi9GdpLxW

— VanAmersfoortRacing (@VARmotorsport) November 7, 2021

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• Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

'Michael is fighting. We only hope he will improve': Jean Todt opens up about his great friend Schumacher (Daily Mail)

"'I can understand why his family and friends are protecting him because we should leave him in peace,' he says. 'Michael is fighting, he is fighting, and we can only hope that he will improve.'"

We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.

Comment of the day

After Daniel Ricciardo’s candid description of his difficult start to the year, Tristan muses on Red Bull’s tumultuous time since his 2018 departure.

Everything happens for a reason. If Daniel never left Red Bull we never would have seen Gasly and Albon in a top car and how it compares to Max, let alone Perez. The whole field would be different now without his Renault and McLaren switches. I don’t think anyone has any regrets or bad feelings about it now, it’s been win-win-win really (with the exception of Abiteboul?).

The only thing maybe missed was seeing Daniel and Max pushing each other further and learning from each other with racecraft, but even if they did for years there would be so much bad blood due to hard decisions like Baku and in a year like this; they probably would have taken more points of each other to ruin their chances more than help it.

By the end of it Daniel would have probably left being beaten by Max on average, possibly seen by other teams as not good enough anyway, and burnt out after years of intense rivalry (think Hamilton Rosberg). Instead here he is now having learnt more, proven more, and on an upwards trajectory with big regulation changes and a more competitive F1 on the horizon.

I also can’t imagine many drivers have had to endure the isolation of Covid as hard as Daniel has, with regards to the Australian situation. We’ve basically had closed borders for the better part of two years, at least not without 14-day isolation that isn’t compatible with the F1 calendar. Not being able to see family freely for that long has an effect on everyone, let alone a top athlete in one of the most high pressure circuses. Very different to the Euro-based drivers that can zip back and forward to home whenever they want.

Hopefully with things returning to normal thanks to the vaccine rate, he can enjoy a much more relaxing off season and build up to next year. Really can’t wait to see if they’ll have a competitive car.
Tristan

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Soundscape and Laura Brewer!

On this day in motorsport

• 35 years ago today Damon Hill won the Brands Hatch Rallysprint against rivals including F1 drivers Martin Brundle, Derek Warwick and Johnny Dumfries plus Stig Blomqvist, Jimmy McRae.