Russell suspects Canadian F1 GP crash not to blame for his retirement

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George Russell suspects his retirement from Formula 1’s Canadian GP was due to Mercedes misconfiguring his car’s brakes, rather than damage sustained when he hit the wall.

Fourth starter Russell first challenged a slow-starting Fernando Alonso for third before settling into position. But on lap 12 of 70, he drove deep into the chicane of turns 8-9 to hit the inside curb.

This deflected him wide into the exit wall where he damaged his front wing and right rear wheel.

Russell managed to get the W14 back to the pits for repairs and he resumed, eventually climbing to eighth place in a car he reported as “a little twisted but okay”.

However, Mercedes asked him to finally retire on lap 53 due to excessive brake wear.

Initially, it was believed that his retirement was directly related to the wall blow which could have damaged the brake cooling ducts and caused a rise in temperatures. But Russell suspects the real cause was that his car hadn’t been set up to handle the dirty-air demands of other cars.

Explaining his initial mistake, Russell said: “I just went a little wide in turn 8. I knew I was going to hit the pavement, but I didn’t expect the sausage pavement to have a response. so violent.

“Then I’m in the air. When I landed I lost the back and was in the wall. It all happened really very suddenly.”

Russell added that he believed his race was immediately over at this stage and that it was right that his mistake had major consequences as he believes F1 should “punish” its drivers.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

He continued, “I did [assume it was over], to be honest. I was surprised that we managed to continue. I was very close to quitting, it’s a hard pill to swallow. But that’s how the sport should be. One small mistake and you should be punished for it.”

Russell said of his eventual retirement: “It didn’t seem 100% perfect. [after pitting] but it was good enough to drive. I think the rear toe was probably a bit out.

“We could have finished at home in P8 but we were in a lot of traffic and the pre-race forecast, obviously we didn’t expect to be in that position. That’s why we probably put the brakes on the wrong place.”

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Asked to confirm if he thought the brake failure was largely unrelated to hitting the wall, Russell said: “I have to look into it with the team, but I’m pretty sure that it was just because I was in such traffic.

“We didn’t plan to be and the brakes weren’t in the right place for it.

“It was quite sudden when it was too late. I think the thing with the brakes, once you go over a certain oxidation threshold, there’s no recovery.

“It doesn’t matter how much you heal them. They’re just at a rate you can’t recover.”

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