© Sebastian Kawka for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
George Russell attended the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix Wednesday Drivers’ Press Conference. Here is the full transcript!
Q: Well, good luck this weekend. Thank you, Kevin. George, let’s come to you now. Brazil last time out seemed like a missed opportunity for you and Mercedes. What lessons were learned?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, it definitely felt like a missed opportunity. I think having reviewed the race, you recognise how quickly things can change. We made the pit stop, which with the perfect benefit of hindsight, that was incorrect. But had that Virtual Safety Car stayed for 10 seconds longer or 15 seconds longer, it would have been absolutely the right thing to do. So it just shows how quickly an external decision can change your race and how you need to be very quick to adapt to that. And we kind of were a little bit too focused on that pit stop and not actually seeing that a car that was beached on the road was being pushed off and the VSC was ending.
Q: And how much encouragement do you take from the pace of the car in Brazil, the front-row start? I mean, you’ve had a stack of points finishes since the summer break, but how close are you to having a race-winning car again?
GR: Brazil was definitely a bit of a one-off, I think. When it rains, it presents opportunities. And for ourself, it was an opportunity. For everyone at Alpine, it was a huge opportunity, which they capitalised. And I think we need to look back to the Sprint qualifying and the Sprint race for a bit of a fairer picture of where we are. And that was behind the front four teams.
Q: George, final one. When you look at this season as a whole, look at the races you’ve won, but look at also the frustrations as well. How will you review the season?
GR: I think now we’ve done almost a full season, we totally understand why the car is so up and down. It has just such a narrow window and when we can set the car up in a way that we exploit that window, we have a race-winning car. But when you go to different circuits and you have to change where you position the set-up, we totally fall outside of our working window. So It’s obviously frustrating when you know the car has that potential. But I think for everyone, you have these fluctuations in performance. We’ve done a good job to capitalise on races that we did, had the pole positions when the car was capable of pole positions. And ultimately, we just need to make a more consistent car over the course of 24 races.
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QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) George, to you and with your GPDA hat on, please. In between the last race and this, the FIA have dispensed with the services of Niels Wittich, the Race Director. Is this something that the GPDA were aware of before it happened? Are you concerned that there are three races to go and we now have a new Race Director, especially coming in to a street race like Las Vegas, which we saw last year, can have a whole load of unforeseen problems?
GR: Yeah, we definitely weren’t aware. It was a bit of a surprise, I think, for everybody. And, you know, it’s a hell of a lot of pressure now onto the new race director. Just three races left. So I think for us… Often as drivers, we probably feel like we’re the last to find out this sort of information. And when it involves us kind of directly, it would be nice to be kept in the loop and just have an understanding of what decisions are being made. So, yeah, time will tell. I’m sure the new guy will handle the position just fine, but definitely not an easy race for a new race director.
Q: (Nelson Valkenburg – Viaplay) Also for George, but I’d love for you both to chime in as well. Last week, a pointed statement from the GPDA towards the FIA and especially towards the President. The tone seemed stronger than I expected. Does that reflect the mood in the field of drivers as well?
GR: I mean, talking as a fellow driver as opposed to sort of my role with the GPDA, I think everybody felt with certain things that have happened over the course of this year that we wanted to sort of stand united. At the end of the day, we just want to be transparent with the FIA and have this dialogue that is happening, and I think the departure of Niels is also a prime example of not being a part of these conversations. And ultimately, we only we want to work with the FIA to make the best for the sport that we all love. So, I think it’s kind of us now putting the pressure back on them to work with us and work with everyone, including F1 as well, just to maximise this opportunity, which Formula 1 is in at the moment, which is, you know, an amazing time to be a part of.
Q: (Nelson Valkenburg – Viaplay) The Formula 1 launch party for next year has been announced. Max has been quite vocal about his feelings of having another event he has to attend to. Is anybody else calling in sick for next year in the O2?
Esteban OCON: To be fair, as a fan of the sport, honestly, it’s a pain to be watching every day a new livery, and sometimes you are missing it because you are doing something else and you see it in different times. I think at least we have one day where we see all the cars, which as a fan of the sport, I’m excited for that. Of course, it’s one more event for us, which is not ideal in that period because it’s going to be very busy. We need to prepare. We need to be fully trained before we get into the season, etc. But I think it’s much better organised than how it was before, especially when, you know, two teams were having the launch at the same day and it wasn’t properly organised. So, yeah, I’m actually looking forward to it.
GR: Yeah, I agree with Esteban, to be fair.
Q: (Diego Mejia – Fox Sports) Question to George. I think that the GPDA created an Instagram account to publish this letter. Is there going to be a different way of… Was there a need to make things more public now from the GPDA side when creating this more public forum?
GR: Yeah, well, I think times are changing and the fans are a huge part of this sport. And I think if we’re talking about openness and transparency and including everybody in this for the greater good, then having it on a social media platform makes perfect sense.
Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports) Sorry, George, GPDA public forum, this one. Did you and the GPDA think that the Race Director needed replacing?
GR: I mean, I can only talk on behalf of myself here as opposed to any of the other drivers, but I think there’s no secret that some were not happy with what was going on in terms of the decisions that were being made, but at the end of the day, I think if you worked together with us, that we could have helped improve the matter. And I think sometimes just hiring and firing is not the solution. You kind of need to work together to improve the problem. So, let’s see what this new era is going to bring, but every time there is a change, you have to take one step back before you make the two steps forwards.
Q: (Jenna Fryer – Associated Press) George, were you guys blindsided by this or have any idea that it was coming or under consideration, that a change in Race Director was coming?
GR: No, no idea whatsoever. So, yeah, as I said, it was a bit of a bit of surprise.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) George, has there been any response from the FIA or the FIA president to what the GPDA put out?
GR: No. Not at the moment, which I’m a little bit surprised about, to be fair. But maybe there’ll be something to come. Who knows?
Q: (Ben Hunt – Autosport) It’s obviously very disappointing to learn from you that there’s no transparency at all from the FIA. Was there any response about where the money’s going from for all these fines and all that sort of stuff? Because that’s another key element which we would quite like to know as well.
GR: No, I think ultimately for us, when we were hearing from the FIA a couple of years ago, when it came to the Presidential elections, they were talking about transparency, talking about where the money is going to be reinvested into grassroots racing, which we’re all in favour for. And of course, when it comes to some of these large fines, there’s a number of drivers on the grid who can comfortably afford these fines. There’s maybe some rookies on the grid that if they’re handed a $1 million fine, you know, they can’t afford this. But if we know where that’s being sort of reinvested and if it’s going into grassroots or into some training programs, then we get it. As I said, I think we just want the transparency and understanding of what was promised from the beginning.
Q: (Kevin Scheuren – Motorsport-total.com) A question to George as well on that topic. Isn’t it a bad sign that you need to open up a social media account to make your voices heard as a collective? Because it sometimes seems, looking from the outside, that the individual, if the individual has an opinion on stuff, he faces repercussions. Now you have to work as a collective. Are you more or less a pawn in this game? Do you drivers feel sometimes more or less as a pawn in this game, not taken serious?
GR: I think we’ve probably learned from the past that whenever we have spoken up, let’s say internally, it hasn’t gone anywhere. And as I said, as drivers, we only want the best for the sport. We want to improve it, especially on safety grounds, but whenever it comes to, you know, decisions in the race, we only want to help. And it’s been a couple of years now that not much has changed when we have sort of given some views forward. And I guess we all wanted to show that we are collectively united. And maybe that will show how seriously we feel as a whole on the subject.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) George, it’s been seven years since the GPDA had put out a public statement of this kind about something they were concerned about. What level of confidence do the drivers have in the leadership of the FIA at the moment?
GR: I mean, I’m not too sure to be honest. We recognise everybody’s working as hard as they can to do the best job possible. There is obviously a huge amount of change within the FIA quite regularly, so it’s clearly not the most stable of places. And maybe that’s why it’s been a bit challenging to get some of the changes that we’ve wanted implemented. Of course, everyone has their own side to their own story. But as I said, I think if we feel that we’re being listened to and some of the changes that we are experiencing, requesting, are implemented, because ultimately we’re only doing it for the benefit of the sport, then maybe our confidence will increase. But yeah, I think there’s a number of drivers who feel probably a bit fed up with the whole situation. And it only seems to be going in, to a degree, the wrong direction.
Q: (Jordan Bianchi – The Athletic) For all three drivers: you returned to Vegas this year. A year ago, there was a lot of hype and excitement about this race. I’m curious, now that you come back here for a second time, what’s the atmosphere like that you guys have kind of experienced so far?
GR: Yeah, I mean, it definitely feels strange, this Grand Prix, just living in the night. And like Kevin says, the atmosphere builds up during the course of the weekend. So, yeah, let’s see how it goes.
Q: (Anna Cordera – Momentum Racing) George, I’d like to ask you, you’ve been racing with Lewis for almost three years. What do you think is going to be different now you being the veteran of the team racing with Kimi, regarding the development of the car?
GR: Yeah, I mean, ultimately, for most F1 teams, you have near on 1,000 people who are working towards building these two cars, yet you only have two drivers driving it. So, I think, let’s say, in Lewis, in my case, it was never that Lewis had a stronger voice. The team listened to us both equally because both of our opinions were extremely important. And the same going into next year. You know, Kimi’s new. He’s fresh. And I’m sure he’s going to have a lot of great ideas to bring to the table. So, you know, I am the more experienced of the two, but we will both get equal voices the same way, and we will both equally contribute towards the development the same way as it was with Lewis and I.
Q: (Ian Parkes – New York Times) Sorry, another question to you, George. George, is it that difficult to try and get a sit-down face-to-face meeting with the President of the FIA to discuss all these issues, that you have to go down the route that you did with that message?
GR: It’s definitely not difficult to get a sit down, but I think getting things to change or getting promises upheld seems slightly more challenging. So, it’s maybe the FIA or the president didn’t recognise how seriously we all felt. So I think that’s why over the course of 20 races this year and also even last year we spoke about a number of topics, all of the drivers, we all feel pretty similar. We all know what we want from the sport and the direction it’s been heading and we probably feel that we want to do a small U-turn on a number of topics and just want to work together with the FIA on this. And that’s just what we’ve felt has not been happening at all, at least directly from the President.
Source: FIA.com
