George Russell: “This Formula 1 is decided at Turn 1, tires don’t make the difference”. George Russell argues that modern F1 races are often decided in the first corner.

After his triumph in Singapore, George Russell struggled to replicate the result at Austin, finishing second in the Sprint thanks to a McLaren collision and only sixth in the Grand Prix. The British driver was unable to recover positions lost at the start, dropping from fourth to sixth after Turn 1, even when he appeared faster than Oscar Piastri at certain points. For George Russell, breaking through from the middle of the pack in today’s Formula 1 has become nearly impossible.

George Russell’s critique of modern F1

George Russell explained to Sky Sports UK: “At the moment, F1 is essentially a race decided by Turn 1. Normally, you need at least half a second to overtake, so if I had come out of the first corner in third position, I would have reached the podium in Austin. Instead, I exited in sixth and finished sixth. There’s only three tenths of a second between the fastest and slowest cars in the top six.”

The role of tires

George Russell also criticized the increasingly durable Pirelli tires for making races less dynamic: “There is no tire degradation, so the performance delta disappears. Is it Pirelli’s fault? Tires are criticized both when there is high degradation, because of too much management, and when there is none. Ideally, soft tires should last 12 laps, medium 15, and hard 20, after which they should completely lose performance. Pirelli has done its best, providing significantly better tires, but the result is less competitive races.”

He added, “On every track, you need at least half a second to overtake, which is why we see so few passes. I can’t even remember the last race with two pit stops.” George Russell concluded by looking at circuits where overtaking could still play a role: “Our best chances are Qatar and Las Vegas, but it will all depend on qualifying.”