“My ribs were in a bit of a dodgy place,” George Russell shares an anecdote of the biggest crash in his racing career
George Russell talks about the biggest crash in his career as well as shedding light on his scariest incident in F1.
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George Russell opens up about the biggest crash in his career
George Russell is one of the promising talents in Formula 1. The 24-year-old has often been referred to as a future F1 world champion. Russell made his mark in the sport during his three seasons at the Williams team. The Brit was then promoted to Mercedes after impressing Team Principal Toto Wolff. Recently, George Russell made an appearance on the Geriant Thomas Cycling Club Podcast.
Where George spoke on a variety of topics, including his teammates in F1. And of course his first win in the sport at the Brazilian Grand Prix this year. Russell also talked about his crashes during his time racing and confessed to the biggest crash in his career. When asked about having a big crash, George talked about one particular incident at the Pembrey Circuit in Wales.
A track which the Brit defined as “a little tiny circuit… kind of like a test track. Very old school.” George Russell went on to describe the peculiar Turn 1 of the circuit. Where the tire barriers were engraved in the banking. Russell called this “effectively like concrete.” And went on to recall an incident on this turn on a test day. When the Brit managed to go off on the grass.
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“It was like hitting a brick wall,” George Russell on the biggest crash of his career
The 24-year-old stated, “So I once lost it on this test day bouncing across the grass heading towards this barrier And I just I hit it.“ George Russell went on to elaborate on the heavy impact of the barrier. The Brit said, “it was like hitting a brick wall.” Russell described the whole incident. How his head made contact with the steering wheel, and the colossal pain endured by the Brit as he struggled to breathe.
He recalled, “my head hit the steering wheel I was in just so much pain my chest and my lungs struggling to breathe.” George Russell also mentioned how his ribs were not in order the next morning. The Brit said, “I woke up the following morning and my ribs were in a dodgy place.”
Russell’s scariest moment in his career was the crash with Valtteri Bottas at Imola in 2021
However, when it came to the scariest crash in his career, George Russell gave the credit to the high-speed collision with Valtteri Bottas during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in 2021. “I’m going down the straight. It had just gone from wet to slicks. So the track just dried out and there was just one dry line.” Russel gave a brief over the whole situation. As he tried to overtake Bottas’s Mercedes with his Williams. George continued “I’m riding his slipstream and I pulled out the slipstream to overtake him with my rear wing open and we’re doing about 330-340[kmph].”
George Russell talked about how he put a wheel on the grass, which resulted in the Brit losing control and colliding with the Mercedes. Russell mentioned the danger of the crash along with the suddenness of the incident. He said, “I’m just sort of going sideways toward the tire barrier and got carbon fiber flying everywhere and that was probably the scariest moment in my career because it happened so suddenly so unexpectedly.”
Certainly, George Russell has had some frightening incidents in his career. However, that has not discouraged George from trying to achieve his dream of being an F1 world champion. All racing drivers are aware that danger is simply a part of motorsport. Despite such incidents and jump-scares, F1 drivers continue to provide us with some of the best racing in the world.
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Armaan Agarwal
(2310 Articles Published)