George Russell wants Formula 1 chiefs to make changes to some circuits after a frustrating evening at the Singapore Grand Prix.
It was a weekend to forget for the Mercedes star, whose remarkable consistency this season deserted him on the streets of Marina Bay. He had finished in the top five at every race he has completed this season, but that record went out of the window on Sunday.
Instead, he was dead last of the 14 finishers, two laps behind the race leaders after a miserable evening. Russell was the racer who first took the risk of moving onto slick tyres as the track took an age to dry after a pre-race downpour, but still made little progress through the field.
Only the racing line was drying out, thanks to the cars going round the track. As it as a night race, with no sun to help dry the other parts, the rest of the track remained fraught with danger – making overtaking incredibly risky and, as Russell described it, "nigh-on impossible".
That was his assessment of a frustrating race, as he called upon F1 chiefs to make changes to some circuits to help make the races more entertaining in the future. "You have to be incredibly audacious in these conditions and without DRS, on a circuit like this, these F1 cars are nigh-on impossible to overtake," he said.
"I feel like F1 has something to learn about these kinds of circuits – here and Barcelona – the only overtaking opportunities, the corners are too quick. Here, you are braking just after the 100m board into that 90-degree left-hander, there is enough space there to make it a tighter corner to make for better racing and better overtaking."
Russell's caution came about after an earlier move on Valtteri Bottas, which almost saw him lose control of his Mercedes and forced to abort down a handily-placed escape road. Speed wasn't a problem, but the Brit said he was thwarted by the conditions.
"I lunged from a long way back," he added when recalling the attempted move on Bottas. "If it had paid off, then great, but it didn't. Nevertheless, we caught him back up in two laps. It goes to show the pace we had."
Zero points scored was a blow to Russell's hopes of finishing as runner-up in the drivers' championship in his first season with Mercedes. He now sits fourth in the standings 34 points adrift of Charles Leclerc, who took home a healthy haul by finishing second behind winner Sergio Perez, who now also has a comfortable gap to Russell.
