© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli give their opinion on Formula 1’s new ‘overtake button’, that Lando Norris has described as “artificial racing”.
At the Australian Grand Prix, drivers and teams had their first opportunity to experience Formula 1’s new ‘overtake button’ in action, which led to some interesting on-track moments.
While some, like McLaren’s Lando Norris, described its impact as “artificial racing”, race winner George Russell said more time is needed to give a final verdict on it.
“It’s different, it’s definitely different,” he said.
“But I think the interesting thing with these regs is every track we go to, they’re not always going to be like this.
“You know, we’re going to Shanghai next where you’ve got one big, long straight, so the majority of drivers will be using their energy on that one straight.
“You don’t need to divide it up between four like you do here in Melbourne. So, everyone’s very quick to criticise things.
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“You need to give it a shot, you know. We’re 22 drivers. When we’ve had the best cars and the least tyre degradation and when we’ve been happiest, everyone moans the racing’s rubbish.
“Now drivers aren’t perfectly happy and everyone said it was an amazing race. So, you can’t have it all.
“And I think we should just give it a chance and see after a few more races,” Russell concluded.
His team-mate Kimi Antonelli says it was “much better than what we all anticipated”.
“I think in a track like this the overtake was incredibly powerful and you could overtake,” the Italian said.
“It created a lot of action in the first few laps of the race, so I think, you know, on this kind of track there will be a lot of action, in some other track maybe a bit less.
“But I think today was much better than what we all anticipated, so I think, as George said, we need to just wait a few more races before actually commenting on this new regulation,” Antonelli concluded.
