“It has kind of made it worse,” George Russell slams FIA for the removal of a DRS zone at Albert Park
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George Russell
The 2022 Australian GP, which was initially planned with 4 DRS zones and two detection lines, has been revised to be held with only 3 DRS zones and the same detection points. The race director announced this decision after the two practice sessions. He said, “For safety reasons, DRS Zones will be reduced to 3 for the remainder of the event. DRS detection 1 will be moved to before Turn 9, DRS activation 1 will be after Turn 10, DRS detection 2 will remain unchanged, with the following activation zones will be renumbered accordingly.”
Removal of a DRS zone means the wing of the car won’t open for an extra straight, resulting in loss of speed and overtaking opportunity. But for Mercedes, it had other significance, thus this decision wasn’t received well by the Mercedes driver George Russell.
George, on being asked if he agreed with the decision taken by the race director, as quoted by GP Fans, said, “Not really, to be honest. I didn’t see an issue. In Saudi, we had DRS open in probably a far tighter corner and much more blind, and there was no issue.” Australia, much like Jeddah, doesn’t have entirely straight DRS zones, thus it became a safety concern.
What are George Russell’s reasons for the criticism?
George Russell argued that the decision wasn’t in the right direction and was causing more harm. He said, “It’s a bit annoying they took away the fourth [DRS zone]. It was kind of counter-intuitive. It was meant to be done for safety reasons, but having the DRS open through there reduces the porpoising and makes it safer, so it has kind of made it worse for us by reducing the DRS.”
It can be seen as a way for the Mercedes driver to try to look for a way out of the problem, for which his car is responsible. While there are other teams to be dealing with porpoising, Mercedes surely appears to be the worst while dealing with it.
George Russell starts P6 alongside his teammate Lewis Hamilton on the third row. The driver is still hunting for his first podium with the Silver Arrows, which could only come if luck favors him and the team.
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Manan Goel
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