George Russell ended the season on a high with a podium but was one of several drivers who struggled with their health over the final races.
The Mercedes racer, who is also a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, expects changes to be made to reduce the strain on teams as a result of the longest-ever, 24-round 2024 F1 calendar.
Speaking after his podium finish in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Russell described how he’d been “really ill the last two weeks.” F1’s season finished with five races in six weeks, and the final two held on consecutive weekends with a punishing 12 hour time zone shift.
“Firstly, in Vegas with a big fever, I couldn’t sleep and just felt awful,” explained Russell. “And then I’ve had a horrendous cough that stayed with me all weekend in the car.
“I was coughing every single lap, but when you’re strapped into the car, you can’t breathe. You can’t take a deep breath in to get the cough out. So, it was just constantly with me. It was pretty, pretty miserable. So I was pleased to bring it home when I saw that chequered flag.”
F1 held 22 rounds in little over 38 weeks this year. Next season’s 24 rounds will take place in the space of 40 weeks.
Russell said he was more concerned for the wellbeing of team members than drivers. “We have it best from every single person in this paddock, the way we travel,” he said. “We’re in a very fortunate position.
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“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 timezone shifts, the body not knowing where you are, eating at different times, staying in different hotels, different environments, different climates. The body’s getting confused.”
He is in favour of rules change to ease the burden on staff. “I think there are talks for next year about personnel being regulated that they can’t do every single race. I think that would be a good thing.
“I don’t think it’s sustainable to 4,000 people, I think to do 24 races a season, especially when you see how geographically [spread out back-to-back events can be], it still doesn’t make a huge amount of sense.”
Other drivers have expressed similar concerns to Russell. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen said it was “not very sustainable” for F1 to end with year with races in two different continents back-to-back. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who like…
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