“They like action, I guess” · RaceFans

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.”

2024 Brazilian Grand Prix

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