Russell hinted that Alonso had rightly been fined

George Russell made it clear at the FIA ​​press conference in Suzuka that Mercedes’ problems may continue at the Japanese circuit, and also commented on the incident involving Fernando Alonso that saw him crash in Melbourne.

George Russell: “It is clear that we are still in the early stages of the season and we have already understood the main characteristics of the car’s behavior, its strengths and weaknesses. Definitely, it handles slow corners better than fast ones, of which there were a lot in Jeddah and Melbourne, but there are also a lot in Suzuka as this is one of the fastest circuits on the calendar.

There is still a lot to discover and we know we are not yet at the level we want to be, but everyone is working hard to improve the correlation between what we see in the team-based simulator and what happens on the road. Then you can increase your speed.

Every time I get behind the wheel I understand the car better, but progress is always gradual. You always want to make significant improvements quickly, but in modern Formula 1 this rarely happens. However, we are confident that we can take another step in the right direction, and another question is: will this be enough?..”

George was also asked about the consequences of the accident, which caused him to withdraw from the Australian Grand Prix: Fernando Alonso was subsequently fined for ‘potentially dangerous driving’, i.e.: The stewards believed that the incident was partly provoked by the Spanish Aston Martin driver.

‘I suppose the circumstances of what happened were a bit strange. Immediately after the incident I said that it happened completely unexpectedly,” George replied. “Actually, at that moment I was looking at the display, because on the straight line I was changing the settings with the switch on the steering wheel, and when I looked up I saw that I was almost in the gearbox of Fernando’s car.

In general, it was already late and the next moment I realized that I was flying into the wall. I think if Alonso had not been fined, it could have opened Pandora’s box for the rest of the season, including in the youth categories. Is it allowed to brake on a straight line? Is it allowed to slow down, shift gears and then speed up again, and do other things that seem almost random?

I do not think that Fernando’s actions were directed against me personally, and perhaps their consequences were more serious than necessary, but I repeat: if they had gone unpunished, I don’t even know… I have nothing more to gain from them to add. .”