On the back of yet another disappointing weekend for F1 Mercedes’ George Russell, Peter responds to a bunch of GR-related questions from F1 fans. Is George’s “style” a mis-match for the current regs? Is he too “smooth”? Peter’s responses – and his personal recipe for how George can stage a comeback – may surprise you.
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Yes, mechanical failures can happen. However, they are more lap of gods type of thing. Something can fall off, malfunction. However, what happened in Nigel's case at Adelaide in 1986 was an error of judgement by someone else – that's entirely different scenario. The same with what happened to Fernando in the Abu Dhabi finale in 2010. Yes, other drivers also had their share of DNFs early days of their careers – like Alain Prost at Renault, and those things can and do have a way evening out of the course of the season. Yes, reliability has drastically improved since then and Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen have been the beneficiaries of that. Nigel Mansell once famously said about the turbo cars driven in the 1980s is they were "monsters literally trying to kill you nearly every lap." On another occasion he called driving those cars a "dangerous dance between precision, instinct and mechanical chaos."
I still very much love rewatching those races from the 1980s on occasion. Such excitement and drama and the drivers were such varying personalities and made watching Formula 1 a lot of fun – Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet, Keke Rosberg, Niki Lauda, Gerhard Berger and I could go on and on! Senna the enormously talent racer who possessed such mastery, deep dedication, sensitivity, intensity with a profound philosophical outlook on racing and life. Prost who was quietly spoken and forward-thinking in mapping out title campaigns. Mansell the hard-charging and courageous underdog, who was not as naturally talented as Senna, Prost or Piquet but made up for it with speed and fighting attitude. Keke Rosberg a hard-nosed, down-to-earth driver with his speed and dry humour and Piquet…the wily, quick-witted playboy whose extravagant personality and sarcasm caused as much controversy and media attention as his racing exploits did. Berger whose humour, practical jokes and friendship allowed Ayrton to renew his enjoyment of racing and Formula 1. Alan Jones was another hard-nosed professional whose courage, race-craft, and straight-talking – like James Hunt, he was never afraid to call it as he saw it, all of which endeared him to both Frank Williams and Patrick Head and his ability to never take a backward step to anyone. Niki Lauda for his talent, speed, courage and race intelligence.
kimi is quick because it isnt at the edge in corners and the speed mainly comes from battery to acceleration after the corners.
last year he was nowhere, George has a point, he also is very unlucky,
To be fair, haven’t you also said trying to adapt to the ground effect merc set Lewis’ driving back?
I'm not sure how relevant it is to compare it to Michael's day, after all, are they adapting their driving style these days or is the algorithm of their battery deployment being adapted?
I think these vehicles are more computer than car. Maybe Kimi's youth is playing a part in him being able to wrangle these Frankenstein cars, but in any case I still think he's a spectacular and deserving champion. These regs are terrible, I'm just glad we have an exciting, rising star to enjoy as we trudge through them.
I’m a bit confused when you say your advice to Russell would be “relax and be yourself”, while saying his driving style is not working. That sounds like “affirmation” not advice.
Russell is just a mediocre driver
Russell isn’t struggling with the car he’s drowning in ANALYSIS PARALYSIS paralyzing his raw racing instincts with telemetry data while Kimi just drives on pure feel..
George won a race this year, and has 211 points this year so far, it doesn't make sense to say the car doesn't match his driving style.
Agree re jumping cars just look what Lawson did in that rally car
One of the things that has stood out to me regarding Kimi this year is how much he realy enjoys driving. I don’t mean during the actual race while chasing the win but in times of no risk. The lone lap he did in Monza qualy through Ascari four wheel drifting, again at Madring, lighting up the rears at the last corner of races while winning. He has so much confidence and car control and just loves what he is doing.
HRH believes his carriage has wooden wheels.
I’m not surprised that kids like Antonelli and Lindblad, who have only experienced 1 or 2 regulation cars and never had experience with the 2007–2020 cars, are the ones struggling less than the others
Kimi is just generational, I think it’s more about Kimi than it is about George. It would be interesting to see how Lewis would have been doing in the same position.
Also Q3 has been so close all year especially with the other teams as the year as progressed. Maybe George’s height is playing a part in the cars dynamics, he has 6 inches on Kimi. Latifi was just speaking about this with the Williams
The old drivers may not of said anything but their results showed they didn’t get on with certain styles of cars.
Peter, you contradictions yourself every minute!
Honestly, you are becoming intolerable
Tell the truth Peter, we done know now that F1 is an entertainment show and less an authentic open seated motor racing competition. That been said, it's clear to see that the engineers are running the show, and Kimi winning the championship is better for Formula one as a brand, and for the Mercedes CEO Olaf Källenius whose in deep waters at the moment in Deutschland.
George Russell is the sacrificial lamb.!
Driving style? Reminds me of DR
I am 60. Followed F1 since childhood, when my father took me to the first race. Stop talking about adapting to 26 regs! First year with no race attendance for me. The 26 regs are shite! And I am out. No blame on Russel, having problems with, alogaritms and Mario Kart.
Not buying the driving style thing. I think George has lost a lot of confidence seeing how Kimi's gone this season. Maybe he needs a fresh start in another team?
Every single driver if they stick around long enough will come across a car that they don’t mesh with. Schumacher had things he hated in a car just like everyone. Verstappen detests understeer so does Leclerc. Hamilton likes a car he can brake aggressively with. Alonso doesn’t like cars that are very oversteery on corner entry. Could go on
Lewis , the GOAT , couldnt adapt to the ground effect cars & Peter gave him a pass for it
Yes, I know Technical Director Patrick Head was the race strategist at Williams during that time.
Why did you not pick Max for this ? He is saying the same.. last year… Front end car…
Alors you want money from Geroge PR Team