Russell sees 'much to learn' from Jeddah's unnecessary danger

December 6, 2021

George Russell had to retire from Sunday’s race after being hit from behind by Nikita Mazepin’s Haas on lap 16 at a time when everyone was trying to avoid the car of a Sergio Pérez who had spun after the first jump.

The British driver managed to slow down to avoid colliding with the Mexican, but behind him Mazepin was unable to do the same and crashed into the rear of the Williams on one of the many blind sections of the Jeddah circuit.

While all the drivers were uninjured at the end of the race, we did see several crashes that were exactly what many drivers and pundits feared due to the combination of a high-speed circuit, limited visibility and tight areas with close walls.

According to Russell , the incident was entirely unavoidable and he believes the track is not safe enough to race these cars.

“It seemed quite inevitable, you go through Turn 2 which is quite wide and open, the cars there can go side by side, and then it all narrows quite quickly,” he told Motorsport.com just after his retirement.

“I took a blind turn, there were cars everywhere, I slowed down and then they hit me from behind helplessly.”

“I think there’s a lot to learn for motorsport this weekend, because it’s an incredibly challenging and exciting track to drive, but it’s missing a lot from a safety perspective and a racing perspective.

“There are unnecessary incidents waiting to happen at all these little blind corners, which aren’t even F1 corners, they’re just an unnecessary hazard.

With Formula 1 scheduled to revisit Jeddah in March next year, Russell hopes the organizers and the FIA will make the necessary changes to improve track safety.

“I think you live and learn from these experiences,” he explained. “You can’t blame anybody for trying to make an amazing race track and ultimately that’s what they got. But I also think nobody thought about what could happen with all these blind corners.

“In my opinion, yes, changes are needed on the track, there are so many problems like this, it’s totally unnecessary.

“That area could become a straight from Turn 2 to Turn 4 and the same from Turn 17 to 22. We have a five-turn section that is totally easy, even with the DRS open.”

“I don’t know what the limitations are, that also needs to be analyzed. But yes, if that area were made in a straight line, security would improve drastically.”

“I think they have the necessary resources here to do it, so it should not be a limitation. Safety must come first. If you can drastically improve the danger with small changes, then it is obvious”, concluded a Russell who from next season he will be Lewis Hamilton’s teammate at Mercedes.