© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Mercedes’ Technical Director James Allison says George Russell’s “ugly few seconds” after his Australian Grand Prix crash, are “not something that will be keeping him awake at night”.
While chasing Fernando Alonso for P6, George Russell crashed into the barriers on the penultimate lap of the Australian Grand Prix.
The Briton then got stranded in the middle of the track, exposed to incoming traffic. He then started frantically saying over the radio that the race needs to be red flagged.
Race control, however, only called for double yellow flags, before triggering a Virtual Safety Car.
In Mercedes’ Australian Grand Prix debrief video, Technical Director James Allison explained what was going through George’s head in those moments.
“Everyone who was watching the race will have heard George’s frantic radio calls calling for a red flag,” the Briton said.
“What George was feeling incredibly vulnerable. He knew he was in the middle of the track.
“He knew he was in a very fast part of the track with corners that may have unsighted anyone approaching him and he was sort of positioned in such a way as he couldn’t see any of the oncoming stuff, but he knew there were hurtling cars headed his way.
“An incredibly vulnerable position to be in and that was the distress you heard from him, that vulnerability.”
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Race control, however, did not red flag the race, and only called for double yellow flags, before triggering a Virtual Safety Car. Allison believes this was the right call.
“What he couldn’t know was how swiftly race control reacted to it, how swiftly the yellow flags came out, how quickly it went to a virtual safety car, and actually I think a very good response from the whole marshalling system to make sure that he was protected in what was a very vulnerable position.
“He could not know that. All he knew was he was sat there horribly exposed and wanted to let people know that in no uncertain terms.”
He added that George quickly returned to normal when he arrived back to the team’s garage.
“However, racing car drivers are racing car drivers, they are nothing if not brilliant at putting past and scary things in the past behind them and pushing on. He was completely back to his normal self within minutes of that happening.
“In the race debrief afterwards, you would not have known what had just happened. He was in the factory on Monday working on the simulator.
“It was an ugly few seconds but not something that will be keeping him awake at night,” Allison concluded.
