George Russell says he was surprised that the Brazilian Grand Prix was not neutralised sooner due to the track conditions.
Russell led the early phase of the race after passing Lando Norris for the lead into the first corner at the start.When the rain increased in intensity in the middle third of the race, Russell and Norris pitted for a second set of intermediate tyres just as a Virtual Safety Car was ending. Not long after, the Safety Car was deployed due to the poor visibility caused by the conditions, which became a red flag when Franco Colapinto crashed in the final sector, allowing cars that had not stopped to change their tyres without losing time.
“I was shocked, to be honest,” Russell told Sky after the race. “I couldn’t keep my foot on the gas down the straight. The car was aquaplaning exceptionally dangerously for those couple of laps. But they like action, I guess.”
Under the red flag, Russell expressed his frustration to his team after he had told them he did not want to pit as the conditions had worsened in case of the race being neutralised. He went on to finish fourth, the highest placed driver of all who had pitted before the red flag.
“We’re in this together as a team,” Russell said. “I would’ve probably taken P4 ahead of the weekend.
“We’ll go over it. Sometimes it’s difficult to predict what’s about to happen. Everybody’s doing their best and making the best calls with the information available.”
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Russell says he will discuss the decision to pit him for a second set of intermediates with his Mercedes team.
“Normally when it’s drying, it’s the team’s call to say, ‘let’s go to slicks’,” he said.
“When it’s getting wetter, it’s normally the driver’s call to say it’s either slicks to inters, or inters to wets. I was very confident it was going to go Safety Car or red flag because it was like driving a boat.”
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2024 Brazilian Grand Prix
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pcxmac (@pcxmac)
3rd November 2024, 19:53
There needs to be a time constraint on red flags, and when an issue or event is raised. like less than 20 seconds at most. If anything they should have 20 seconds to clear the condition before it automatically triggers a red flag, that way we don’t have race direction or whomever deciding races or qualifying.
FS005
4th November 2024, 4:59
I disagree because different situations don’t need red flags. If a car crashes in qualifying and is able to return to the pits then a red flag is not necessary to ruin everyone’s lap – like Baku.
And in the case of rain. Drivers should just switch to full wets instead of moaning that the track is too wet for inters and they need a free pitstop. Also just because the condition is too wet for some drivers doesn’t mean other drivers have a problem. Perez was going 7s a lap faster on full wets.
Ronald van Bakel
4th November 2024, 7:55
Yeah, let’s make some more rules for situation that are by nature not identical. Works fine for overtaking doesn’t it?
Sarcasm off: we can’t catch everything by rules. The only solution is that participants and viewers jist accept that Racecontrol and the marshals make the best decisions they can. I know, not very likely to happen, but all other solutions like more rules, fulltime stewards and so on will not work as long as any decision is under discussion by everyone.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
3rd November 2024, 19:55
I can’t work out how they didn’t do a single lap in qualy yesterday yet at some point during the race before the red flag the TV showed a completely white picture so bad was the spray.
Patrick (@paeschli)
3rd November 2024, 20:02
I am guessing it’s easier to keep racing on a track where you have 18 cars continually clearing water vs having to start from scratch with tyres that are not the right temperature.
Mayrton
4th November 2024, 9:17
Because they didn’t want a quali in the wet since it would see Max come out on top. They did everything in their power to help Lando (VSC in Sprint, penalty for Max in the sprint, cancelling the Saturday quali, Red Flag in Sunday quali and even after that to be lenient to a clear start procedure infringement). FIA/Liberty only exist if they create shareholder value. This means viewers and ticket sales. These go a lot better when there is still a fight for the championship. Currently, their numbers are dropping so they need to intervene to safe their entertainment franchise.
Craig
4th November 2024, 9:37
We’ll just ignore all those times Verstappen’s antics have been openly ignored by the FIA and stewards to make up this false idea of helping Norris. It’s weird the moment rules are properly applied to Verstappen that people start crying foul and making up rubbish.
MichaelN
3rd November 2024, 19:57
That’s the thing with these conditions; the drivers are anticipating inevitable neutralization. And inevitable it turned out to be. Wet weather racing – as opposed to driving – just isn’t F1’s thing anymore. The only position change in the top 8 after the red flag was Verstappen getting past Ocon and Leclerc getting ahead of Norris. In almost 35 laps. It’s unfortunate.
Grapmg
3rd November 2024, 20:12
Max jumped 3 guys with the VSC Rus, Nor and TSU (he was 5th and Ocon also stayed out). So there must have been more position changes in the top 8 in this wet weather racing. But maybe we watched a different race.
Riccard
3rd November 2024, 22:31
That isn’t the case. As well as the two overtakes you mentioned, Russell and Piastri also passed Norris, before team orders gave one of those positions back.
And that’s just in the very tightly-defined top-8-after-red-flag part of the race. There was loads of racing and overtaking in the rest of the race too.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
3rd November 2024, 20:02
Yet only Tsunoda was on full wets. Maybe they should have tried those first (I know they’re bad, but still safer than inters)
Red Andy (@red-andy)
3rd November 2024, 20:08
They’re not “bad,” per se, it’s just that the point at which they’re better than inters is very close to the point at which the running gets called off anyway. So strategically it almost never makes sense to put wets on.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 6:47
@roadrunner Given that people were crashing under the Safety Car, there was no way to get everyone back to the pits at Safety Car speed to find out. That, I think, was the real reason it took so long to call the red flag – Race Control was waiting for proof the Safety Car would not suffice for that particular moment.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
3rd November 2024, 20:09
One thing you could do if you find the situation too dangerous is pitting for different tyres? Just an idea.
PeterG
3rd November 2024, 21:08
Then maybe they should give them full wet tires which actually work.
Dri6vets have been complaining about how bad the pirelli full wets are since 2011 and nothing has really improved much since then.
Apparently they are worse now tire warmers are not allowed for the wets.
Laz
4th November 2024, 9:17
Tsunoda put those wets on and was lapping 7 seconds faster than Russell and Norris. The wets do work for those conditions. But I guess the visibility gets so extreme at that point that a red flag is inevitable, rendering them pointless as they’re not a tyre that they can actually race on.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 6:51
@spafrancorchamps That requires getting back to to the pits, and the teams at least obviously thought inters would suffice at the time they were issued.
Leksa (@leksa)
3rd November 2024, 20:49
The habit of race control neutralizing the race has only created self-fulfilling prophecy, where the drivers do not want to pit to change tyres, because they anticipate red flag, and, consequently, since drivers are racing on worn inters and won’t change to full wets, race director gets afraid there will be a big accident and is eager to neutralize the race, to fulfill the vicious circle. No wonder full wet are never used.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
3rd November 2024, 20:55
Exactly. I think race control should wave black and orange flag and force them to pit for full wets in such occasions.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 6:54
@spafrancorchamps Not viable, as the black-and-orange flag also requires repairs to be made. If the cars are fine, the teams would not be able to get the cars back on track after applying wet tyres. This would, as a result, incentivise deliberately crashing in wet conditions. If that’s the case, teams will want their drivers to go as far as possible before crashing, which puts us back in the situation we are in now.
Laz
4th November 2024, 9:18
Totally agree, and it’s a shame because it really hurts anyone who does make the right choice to pit for wet tyres.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
3rd November 2024, 21:07
This is kind of the problem with the rules and these conditions. If Russel and others were concerned about “aquaplaning exceptionally dangerously”, then that’s what the full wet tyres are for, but they don’t want to pit because they know any conditions that require the full wets will likely get red flagged.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
3rd November 2024, 21:43
Yep, a pitty the rules are not more clear in order to give more power to the teams to direct the outcome of their own races, vs the stewards having the option to drop a flag when they see fit.
Instead of making the cars self driving, make the stewards fully-automated. The teams and drivers need consistent application of the rules in a timely fashion, not questionable calls which wreak of politicking and stakeholder demands.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
3rd November 2024, 21:43
(stewards/race direction)
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 6:56
@pcxmac That would require the FIA to want to measure the true state of the track, otherwise it would be impossible for an automated race control to make any calls in this direction that could be described as dangerous aquaplaning.
At that point, a human Race Control would stand a chance.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
3rd November 2024, 22:11
I think it was right for the red flag as conditions were clearly getting to the point where we were going to see aquaplaning as cars were already starting to move around on the straights a lot.
But more so visibility was also getting horrendously poor. If you look at Lando Norris in helmet camera onboard for example you could barely see 2-3 metres ahead and when you have horrid visibility on top of aquaplaning on straights your just risking cars running up the back of each other.
If a driver has to lift on a straight and the driver behind can’t see it to react your just risking a big accident.
Seriously go find Lando’s helmet camera onboard to see just how dangerously blind visibility to gotten.
But again I guess fans who have never driven a race car in these conditions will claim to know best & claim that it was all perfectly safe & race-able and that drivers are cowards or whatever.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
3rd November 2024, 22:23
@roger-ayles
Here you go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bpfpJrrJ2o
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 6:56
@roger-ayles It’s worth asking if the marshals at the marshal posts could see each other. If not, that’s an automatic red flag for visibility, by the way.
Tristan
3rd November 2024, 22:53
As the head of the GPDA it would be nice to see him organise something to the effect that the wet weather situation needs improving.
I don’t like the “we’ll get over it” vibe and stance… Sure it makes the world go round, but ignoring these warning signs that the sport has unsafe procedures is what leads to serious accidents.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th November 2024, 6:59
It requires a FIA leadership that would listen to the drivers. The GPDA’s trying to get a driving standards improvement through that is agreed by all but one driver (suspected to be one driver who was earlier favoured by that improvement) and it’s not working. Not because there is one person dissenting but because the FIA apparently prefers its own way.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
4th November 2024, 0:07
The sport runs in the rain, period end of subject. Yes they should improve the wet weather tires but the drivers need to drive in the rain and if they’re struggling with inters, change to wets.
Osnola
4th November 2024, 9:29
Well george showed he was on the wrong line. Norris found a better line and passed him with ease.
The weather was the same for everyone.