For serious, though, I pointed out after Austin last year that cutting across the entire track at the first turn of the first lap is awful racecraft from Sainz, and got shouted down by Russell-haters.
While I think Russell should’ve been more careful in that scenario (and didn’t have a wall there IIRC), yea Sainz definitely seems to only have awareness to one side of the car at best.
Russell was already committed to crossing the apex and running out to track limits at corner exit in Austin, when Sainz suddenly checked up and tried to cut inside of Verstappen. Russell shouldn’t have overcommitted either, but the sudden move to the inside was a violation of iRacing 101-level racecraft – you can always safely assume that some other dingbat is going to try and make a lunge into the first corner on race start, so if you’re out front it’s in your best interest to be as predictable as possible for the cars behind. As the old saw goes, you can’t win a race in the first corner, but you sure can lose one – and Sainz has lost two in the space of a year that way.
I do agree with that, I never understood why Russell got so much hate for that incident. Maybe people see something different in it, idk.
At least here in Spa Carlos was trying to avoid Hamilton who was also cutting it a bit too close, but that’s the nature of that stupid turn that’s deadly on starts. It’s still not cool to slam someone against the wall, that just can’t end well either way.
Btw I’m also thinking about how he spun out Alonso in Australia.
In piastri’s case I think sainz just locked up. I don’t really think it’s an indication of him doing it on purpose. But yeah, some fans have something against Russell. You crash into one bottas years ago and the world never lets it down.
If anything, it’s that Russell then bonked Bottas on the head afterwards. That was twatty af and hard to live down. People don’t forget so easily when a sportsman acts like a dipshit, even if it’s a little thing. Well unless it’s their darling that can’t do wrong, and poor George isn’t anyone’s darling.
It seemed to me that everyone liked Russell when he was in Williams. He would occasionally out drive the fuck out the car, but, once it was obvious he was taking bottas’ seat, he started coming off as douchey . Him yelling at Bottas for his own mistake of running into the grass was kinda the turning point. Also saying that a Mercedes shouldn’t be fighting for 9th, then fighting for 9th the next year in the same seat was karma. He also complained that schumacher was fighting for his life, which he was, while defending 12th or whatever it was. The internet never forgets Georgey
I agree it was a really bad moment for him. But IMO, when it comes to driver beefs I feel like if the drivers have moved on the fans should move on.
I guess so, but it’s still interesting to see how these guys react in such situations.
In the last F3 sprint there was this moment where a driver returned to track unsafely and took himself and another car out. What he did was he ran to the other driver, obviously profusely apologised, and then went away to scream at himself. It was such a cool sporting moment.
And so if a teenager can do that, it’s a bit odd to see grown men in F1 act like children sometimes. The radio just makes it worse, because if they know people listen to what they’re saying, it makes sense for them to blame everyone else even if they know it’s their fault.
Can’t fault viewers if these things leave a bad taste in their mouth.
I agree with all that and it did leave a bad taste in my mouth too for about a year, but it’s been a long time, the drivers have moved on, and he’s been really respectful since then. Just feels weird to me to hold a grudge for years and years over something that the drivers stopped caring about. I’m not defending him in the moment but I can’t pretend to understand the stresses the drivers are under and try to forgive drivers for one off outbursts. If it’s a constant thing then I definitely get annoyed with them.
Russel just has that reverse je ne sais quoi. I hate to admit it, but he has a very punchable face and he never did wrong by me :(
I can see that, but I have a soft spot for dorky drivers who don’t come from super rich families.
Dude’s got that classic British fop facial structure working against him. Does he do dumb stuff on track sometimes? Yeah, but I don’t think that’s why people are so ready to heap blame on him.
Aren’t you supposed to yield to cars ahead of you? I think both were at fault for being on the inside and back a bit when it was pretty obvious that whoever is in front is going to squeeze to the apex, especially when there is traffic to their outside.
That being said, T1 at the start is always chaos and it’s surely not easy to keep track of where every single other car is and what they’re doing. I don’t really blame Piastri, and I wouldn’t blame Russel like I had if he hadn’t been all indignant like “he just turned into me what was he doing?” when he’d thrown himself down the inside a few other times and suffered the same fate. Like, mate the problem is trying to make that move in a crowd…live to fight another lap! And, to be fair, he seems to do it a lot less now.
As is often pointed out, the team radio messages are sent in the heat of the moment, and when the red mist comes down every driver is quite sure they’re in the right. Piastri also came across team radio asking WTF Sainz was doing chopping across the apex out of nowhere, when by the strict reading of the rules Sainz did in fact have the right to the racing line. Rules aside, though, it’s just poor racecraft to move around unpredictably at race start, and frequently ends with you throwing your race away on the first lap.
