![](\"https:\/\/www.grandprix.com\/display\/photo?photo_caption=George+Russell%2C+Australian+GP+2026&photo_copyright=%C2%A9+Mercedes&photo_url=https%3A%2F%2Fphotos.grandprix.com%2Fjpeg%2Fraces%2Fpaus26%2Fsun%2Fmer%2Fpodium2-lg.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nGeorge Russell, Australian GP 2026
\u00a9 Mercedes<\/p>\n
Current F1 drivers George Russell and Oscar Piastri were in action for Pirelli’s 2027 tyre development program on Tuesday, with wet-dry conditions greeting the opening two days.<\/p>\n
The test – which continues on Wednesday when Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli take over – is strictly limited to tyre work, meaning teams cannot trial their own developments.<\/p>\n
You know, Formula 1 is also so difficult because we don’t have the opportunity to practice much, but that’s the rule, Russell said.<\/p>\n
We’d like to do a huge number of starts, but we’re not allowed to.<\/p>\n
Piastri agreed the running is useful, even if limited.<\/p>\n
It’s not quite the same as a race weekend or a race. Still, it’s better than nothing, he said.<\/p>\n
But beyond the technical work, both drivers used the opportunity to highlight the appeal of the Nurburgring’s familiar F1 layout itself – and the absence of Germany from the modern calendar.<\/p>\n
I really enjoyed driving this morning. I really love the Nurburgring. I also did a few laps of the Nordschleife. I really, really like it. It’s a truly traditional, old-school track, Russell said.<\/p>\n
Yeah, you know, I’d love to come back here for a race someday, of course we don’t have any races in Germany right now, but with Mercedes it would probably be nice to get one back on the calendar.<\/p>\n
Piastri echoed the sentiment, praising the circuit’s unique character.<\/p>\n
It’s a great track. I haven’t raced here in a while – the last time was in 2019. It’s an old-school track with bumps and specific kerbs, especially at the exit of corners, he said.<\/p>\n
There’s almost no room for error – it’s all grass and gravel. Some sections are very challenging, and behind the wheel of a modern Formula 1 car, the track feels quite compact compared to the ones we usually race on. But it’s always great to return to such historic tracks.<\/p>\n
When asked directly about a return to Formula 1, the Australian was open.<\/p>\n
“Of course. I don’t mind. It’s not my favourite track, but it’s very interesting and unique. There are a lot of elevation changes, and, of course, the history of this place is also very important.<\/p>\n
Racers love old-school tracks. The kerbs and runoff areas typical of such tracks always provide more driving satisfaction when everything is done correctly. It would be nice, but we’ll see.<\/p>\n
(GMM)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"APRIL 15, 2026 Two top Formula 1 drivers have called for the Nurburgring’s return to the calendar, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[944,855,884,911,898,64,63,839,840,892,936,937,922,864,868,843,512,874,906,897,817,836,904,848,845,826,837,813,835,816,867,876,894,841,842,833,908,887,860,909,930,914,939,886,934,832,834,858,941,875,861,850,870,854,900,866,846,880,943,889,878,823,881,863,933,935,910,859,913,844,923,927,896,926,883,938,932,824,901,871,852,849,888,872,891,915,822,838,918,916,857,879,893,869,931,885,924,847,882,851,865,925,928,942,929,85,920,921,902,862,919,917,873,940,905,912,895,853,856,877,819,903,899,907,890],"class_list":{"0":"post-609331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-abu-dhabi","9":"tag-adrian-sutil","10":"tag-albers","11":"tag-alesi","12":"tag-ammermuller","13":"tag-au","14":"tag-australia","15":"tag-autoracing","16":"tag-autos","17":"tag-badoer","18":"tag-bahrain","19":"tag-barcelona","20":"tag-benetton","21":"tag-bruno-senna","22":"tag-button","23":"tag-cars","24":"tag-china","25":"tag-david-coulthard","26":"tag-davidson","27":"tag-doornbos","28":"tag-f1","29":"tag-f1-racing","30":"tag-fauzy","31":"tag-felipe-massa","32":"tag-fernando-alonso","33":"tag-ferrari","34":"tag-fia","35":"tag-formula-1","36":"tag-formula-one","37":"tag-formula1","38":"tag-giancarlo-fisichella","39":"tag-gilles-villeneuve","40":"tag-glock","41":"tag-grand-prix","42":"tag-grandprix","43":"tag-grandprix-com","44":"tag-hakkinen","45":"tag-hamilton","46":"tag-heikki-kovalainen","47":"tag-hill","48":"tag-hockenheim","49":"tag-honda","50":"tag-hungary","51":"tag-ide","52":"tag-indianapolis","53":"tag-inside-f1","54":"tag-insidef1-com","55":"tag-jaime-alguesuari","56":"tag-japan","57":"tag-jaques-villeneuve","58":"tag-jarno-trulli","59":"tag-jenson-button","60":"tag-juan-pablo-montoya","61":"tag-kamui-kobayashi","62":"tag-karthikeyan","63":"tag-karun-chandhok","64":"tag-kimi-raikkonen","65":"tag-klien","66":"tag-korea","67":"tag-kovalainen","68":"tag-kubica","69":"tag-lewis-hamilton","70":"tag-liuzzi","71":"tag-lucas-di-grassi","72":"tag-magny-cours","73":"tag-malaysia","74":"tag-mansell","75":"tag-mark-webber","76":"tag-mclaren","77":"tag-michael-schumacher","78":"tag-minardi","79":"tag-monaco","80":"tag-montagny","81":"tag-monte-carlo","82":"tag-monteiro","83":"tag-montreal","84":"tag-monza","85":"tag-motorsport","86":"tag-nakajima","87":"tag-nick-heidfeld","88":"tag-nico-hulkenberg","89":"tag-nico-rosberg","90":"tag-paffett","91":"tag-pedro-de-la-rosa","92":"tag-piquet","93":"tag-prost","94":"tag-racing","95":"tag-racingcars","96":"tag-red-bull","97":"tag-renault","98":"tag-robert-kubica","99":"tag-rosberg","100":"tag-rossiter","101":"tag-rubens-barrichello","102":"tag-san-marino","103":"tag-sato","104":"tag-sauber","105":"tag-schumacher","106":"tag-scott-speed","107":"tag-sebastian-vettel","108":"tag-sebastien-buemi","109":"tag-senna","110":"tag-silverstone","111":"tag-singapore","112":"tag-spa","113":"tag-sports","114":"tag-spyker","115":"tag-super-aguri","116":"tag-sutil","117":"tag-timo-glock","118":"tag-toro-rosso","119":"tag-toyota","120":"tag-trulli","121":"tag-turkey","122":"tag-valles","123":"tag-verstappen","124":"tag-vettel","125":"tag-vitaly-petrov","126":"tag-vitantonio-liuzzi","127":"tag-webber","128":"tag-williams","129":"tag-winkelhock","130":"tag-wurz","131":"tag-yamamoto","132":"tag-zonta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}