03 November 2023 , 17:40
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George Russell thinks more disqualifications could happen at this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix as Formula 1 puts on its first Sprint weekend since the US GP was marred by post-race punishments.
Lewis Hamilton finished that Austin race second while Charles Leclerc was sixth on the road. But both were later stripped of those results and the points that came with them when their car was found to have broken F1 rules.
There was too much wear found on the planks underneath their cars, having bounced around on the bumpy Texas circuit. Explaining how it had happened, the general consensus was that the the fact it was a Sprint weekend played a major role.
With just one hour of practice allowed before car set-ups are locked in for the whole weekend, not enough data was gathered for Mercedes and Ferrari to make the right decisions regarding the ride height of their cars.
And Russell thinks its possible that it could happen again at Interlagos this weekend after one single 60-minute practice session on Friday. "It's going to be really challenging," said the Brit, whose Mercedes was not inspected for plank wear after the Austin race.
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"And this is a big, big issue with the Sprint race weekends because, as we said in Austin, we ended practice, we did our checks and there was no plank wear and we thought we were in the clear.
"And then with a small change of wind direction, putting in 100 kilos of fuel in the car for the first time, some laps in traffic, some laps not in traffic on a really bumpy circuit, we suddenly found ourselves in an issue we weren't expecting. I've got to be honest, on a track like this some teams might find themselves in the same place, So that's just part of a game in a Sprint race."
For the first and only time this season, Mercedes come into a race weekend as the defending champions from the previous year. Russell won the 2022 edition of the Sao Paulo race ahead of Hamilton and pointed to the fact Max Verstappen was hampered by a poor set-up on his Red Bull over that weekend as an example of how much of a difference it can make.
"Red Bull definitely took a step backwards this time last year and it just goes to show, in these Sprint races, if you were to make a bad choice, you are locked in and you can't rectify those mistakes," he added. "So there's pros and cons to that.
"I personally don't like it because this is the pinnacle – Formula 1. These cars are so complex, we've got so many brilliant engineers here working to improve the car that to be locked in after a 60 minute session, if there's a red flag or delays or if it's wet, you're going in totally blind-sided."