It isn't racing, it's stupidity

Mercedes driver George Russell made his position clear on the delays to the Belgian Grand Prix, arguing that “it’s just stupidity” to race in that kind of rain at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, disagreeing with Max Verstappen who told the media, “if you can’t see, you can always lift.”

After the Formula 3 race had been cancelled earlier in the day, the Formula 1 race was delayed by 80 minutes as the weather slowly improved. Once it did begin, it started behind the safety car for a duration of four laps.

The decision from the race director has split the opinions of the F1 paddock, with some agreeing that for safety reasons, the race needed to be delayed – especially given the history of Spa. But others felt that it could have started earlier.

Russell, who is also the director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, explained to the media following the race: “As a racer, you always want to get going. You love driving in the rain. But the fact is, when you’re doing over 200 miles an hour out of Eau Rouge, you literally cannot see anything; you may as well have a blindfold on. It isn’t racing, it’s just stupidity.”

Some drivers had raised concerns with the FIA following the chaotic British Grand Prix, stating that the visibility was too poor in the heavy rainfall. The race at Silverstone saw Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Isack Hadjar, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Liam Lawson all retire from the race, and Franco Colapinto did not start.

The Dutchman didn’t share the same view.

“Between Turn 1 and 5 there was quite a bit of water, but if you do two laps behind the safety car it would have been a lot more clear,” he said. “And the rest of the track was ready to go.

“The more you run, it will be much better. And if you can’t see, you can always lift. At one point you will see…

“Then it’s better to say: ‘You know what, let’s wait until it’s completely dry and then we just start on slicks.’ Because this is not really wet weather racing for me.

“At the end of the day, they do what they want, right? But I just find it a bit of a shame for everyone. You will never see these classic wet races anymore.”

Russell went on to finish fifth in the Belgian Grand Prix, which team chief Toto Wolff felt was the maximum available to the team.

“There are not many positives we can take from the weekend here in Spa,” Wolff explained in the Mercedes race report.

George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images

“Our pace has not been good enough to compete with our usual rivals and that has been frustrating. We need to quickly understand why that has been. We also need to ensure we execute the race weekend more cleanly, getting the car in a better place from the first session on track.

“Today, George delivered what was the maximum with the car in P5. It was a race all about damage limitation and he did a good job to secure some points. For Kimi, starting from the back, it was always going to be challenging to fight through. In the wetter conditions, his set-up was useful but that hindered him once it transitioned to the dry. He attempted something different with the two-stop in the closing stages, but his straight-line deficit held him back.”

Photos from Belgian GP – Race

Belgian GP – Sunday, in photos

It isn’t racing, it’s stupidity

Tags: