George Russell Needs to sort his shit out - dailycarblog
George Russell Needs To Press CTRL-ALT-DEL After Imola Red Mist
Formula One

George Russell is taking a hiding from his F1 peers after becoming the center of a huge crash storm. He became the lightning rod who sparked a massive accident between himself and Valtteri Bottas at the rain-affected Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. As the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Russell directed his fury towards Bottas. Bottas, in the most Finnish of manners, directed his middle finger towards Russell. The much talked about crash occurred on the high-speed section in the run-up to the Tamburello chicane. Battling for 9th position, Russell elected to overtake Bottas on the damp side of a drying track. But it all went wrong and ultimately ended in the gravel trap as both cars collided at speeds approaching 200mph. And they came to rest heavily damaged by the resulting impact with the crash barriers.

Russell placed the entire blame on Bottas despite evidence showing it was the Williams young gun. But let’s rewind back to the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix where Russell was extracted from Williams to deputize for a Covid-19 stricken Hamilton. Russell could and should have won that race if it were not for a pitstop blunder by the Mercedes team. Fast forward to the Emilia GP 2021 and Russell has to rebuild his rising star reputation literally from the gravel trap.

George Russell Emilia Romagna GP Crash - dailycarblog

The modern Grand Prix driver starts off at a very young age. And as they rise up through the various formulas they build up a lot of racing experience before they reach the highest formula of them all. Russell is already a veteran racer at a relatively young age. But Formula One is on another level and racing experience can only take you so far. You need the clearest of minds to know when to nail that overtake.

You have to assess where and when it is safe to overtake on a damp track with a single dry racing line. You have to decide whether the risk is worth taking. And you have to do that in the blink of an eye, lap after lap. Russell went for the Netflix “hero move”. He took the decision to go offline, onto the damp side of the track, on slick tyres, and lost it big time.

The issue here isn’t just the crash, young drivers will make mistakes, they will crash. It’s an unforgiving reality. The real issue is Russell’s inability to admit fault and then trash talk Bottas like a Fox News anchor. That didn’t look good for a number of reasons. The main one being is, will a championship-winning team want a driver who melts down so easily? That is the question George Russell has to ask himself and why he needs to sort his shit out.


George Russell Needs to sort his shit out - dailycarblog
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