George Russell said he was “shocked” by the call to
continue while the weather worsened at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday.
Rain hit hard midway through a thrilling race, with
Russell having taken the lead from Lando Norris and led the first part of the
Grand Prix before his pit stop, which was eventually red-flagged on lap 32
following a crash for Franco Colapinto.
George Russell ‘shocked’ by race continuation decision in
wet conditions
With the race continuing as the weather got worse, a
couple of drivers opted to move to full wet tyres in Sergio Perez and Yuki
Tsunoda, with the Red
Bull and VCARB drivers taking seconds out of those to remain on
intermediates.
The eventual top three of Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon
and Pierre Gasly stayed out until the red flag was eventually called, but the
Safety Car was put out beforehand while the worst of the rain was over the
track – with Colapinto crashing under Safety Car conditions to prompt the red
flag.
This stoppage allowed the drivers a free choice of tyres,
with the Mercedes driver expressing frustration at not staying out in the
belief that a yellow or red flag would eventually come – though he said he and
the team are “in this together” when it comes to strategy calls.
But given the fact he could not stay on the throttle in
the left-hand kink on the start/finish straight and with visibility poor as the
weather worsened, Russell expressed his surprise at the proceedings now being
halted sooner.
“I was shocked, to be honest,” Russell said to Sky
F1 after the race.
“I mean, we could barely keep, like, I couldn’t keep my foot
on the gas down the straight.
“The car was aquaplaning, exceptionally dangerous for those
couple of laps, but they like action, I guess.”
As for Russell, he was the highest finisher of those to stop
prior to the red flag, with Lando Norris admitting after the race his
compatriot was potentially the deserving winner on Sunday – though Verstappen’s
rise from 17th on the grid for victory was a dramatic one.
In explaining his initial concern at not staying out to
benefit from the same ‘free’ tyre choice as those in front of him, Russell
offered insight into the team’s processes on this area in wet races.
“You know, we’re in this together as a team and we would
have already taken P4 ahead of the weekend,” he added.
“We’ll go over it. Sometimes it’s difficult to predict what’s about to happen, everybody is doing their their best and making the best calls with the information available.
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