{"id":810168,"date":"2026-07-19T12:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T12:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/810168\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T12:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T12:38:09","slug":"george-russell-admits-conflicting-views-over-key-f1-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/810168\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell admits ‘conflicting views’ over key F1 debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both George Russell<\/a> and Carlos Sainz were hesitant to suggest F1 rules should be changed to prevent finishing behind a safety car following the British Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

The race at Silverstone looked set for a grandstand finish when the safety car was reported to be coming in at the end of the penultimate lap but it actually ended in a damp squib with Bernd Maylander not breaking away from the pack until metres before the finish line.<\/p>\n

George Russell and Carlos Sainz give verdict on safety car finishes<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust.<\/p>\n

A software error was blamed for the erroneous message<\/a>, but the race ending behind the safety car sparked a debate over whether F1 should change its rules in order to ensure a grand prix always ends in racing conditions.<\/p>\n

To do that, the most likely solution would be a red flag, although F1 cars are fuelled for a set race distance. But Russell, who is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers\u2019 Association, was hesitant to suggest a change was needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got conflicting views,\u201d he said to media including PlanetF1.com in Spa. \u201cIs it fair for a driver who\u2019s got a 20-second gap to then have a red flag and the race neutralised with three laps remaining? He\u2019s done that well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if there\u2019s 25% of the race remaining, or you know, 30% of the race remaining, and there\u2019s a red flag, you can kind of maybe accept it. But if there\u2019s three laps to go, and there\u2019s a red flag, similar to Melbourne, I think 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cEqually, do I like a race finishing under a safety car? No. But you know, when was the last time? Was it Abu Dhabi \u201921?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to finish the race and have that great big climax but if there was no incident, there would be no climax anyway in those final stages of the race, so it\u2019s just a bit of a niche. No major conversations as yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

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Sainz, who is also a director of the GPDA, suggested FOM may look for a change as they \u201ccare more about the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think racing finishes are always welcome,\u201d he said. \u201cI think there\u2019s cases where coincidentally there\u2019s a safety car in the last lap or two laps to go. You cannot change the outcome of a race just because there\u2019s bad luck that the safety car came two laps to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is true that it came with five or six laps to go, and we tried to restart it, and it never happened. That\u2019s why the regulations need to maybe favour the restart of the race in a better way, but I\u2019m sure FIA and especially FOM that care more about the show are looking into it and they can find a solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t think it\u2019s this case where it happens once every two years, and then you analyse the case. You try and improve the regulation to fit for it. I\u2019m not too worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

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You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: Lewis Hamilton joins calls for F1 rule change after FIA decision sparks debate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Both George Russell and Carlos Sainz were hesitant to suggest F1 rules should be changed to prevent finishing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,13473,4971,817,813,816,3875,818,44,85],"class_list":["post-810168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-british-grand-prix","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810168","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=810168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}