George Russell once again collected a five-second penalty in Austin – and is now calling himself for the FIA to be tougher on such cases in future
Mercedes Formula 1 driver George Russell collected a five-second penalty for overtaking Oscar Piastri alongside the track during last weekend’s Austin sprint. Now the Brit himself is calling for tougher penalties for such things in the future.
Team boss Toto Wolff already stated after the sprint: “His penalty was completely justified and we should have given the position back. That was my mistake, because I thought we had more pace to take more than a five-second lead.”
In other words, Mercedes deliberately accepted the penalty. This is not the first incident of this kind, as there have already been several five-second penalties this season, which in the end had no effect whatsoever on the final result of the driver concerned.
Russell himself has also been the subject of a conspicuous incident: in Monza, he overtook Esteban Ocon off the track and received the obligatory five-second penalty. However, he was allowed to keep his fifth place in the end because his lead to the rear was large enough.
“I don’t enjoy racing like that,” Russell himself reveals. But from a sporting point of view, it often makes sense at the moment to accept a five-second penalty rather than being stuck behind a slower car for many laps.
Are the tracks themselves the problem?
“Time penalties are very dependent on the race,” Russell points out, revealing, “We’ve talked [as an alternative] about a possible position penalty, which is a stronger penalty.” For him, one thing is for sure: “Something has to change.”
Possibly not only to the regulations, but also to the tracks. Because Russell points out, “If there’s gravel there and someone pushes you outside, you end up in the gravel.” In that case, as a driver, you would then be taking much less risk.
In his situation last weekend, however, he said he knew that in the worst case scenario he would have to go into the asphalt run-off zone if his attempt to pass Piastri on the outside failed. “There are probably only three tracks in the whole season where that’s the case,” Russell said.
“At the end of the day, we all race by the same rules. If you’re driving in Monaco, obviously you can’t go over the limit because you’ll end up in the wall. When you drive in Japan, you can’t go over the limit because you’ll end up in the gravel,” he explains.
However, that’s not the case at other tracks, like Austin just recently, which is why Russell clarifies, “You don’t want to have a ‘you get out of jail free card.’ So the FIA has to find a way to avoid that. “
