Mercedes driver George Russell explains what has helped him move on from the anguish of his last-lap crash last Sunday - and why it won't happen again when he's in the F1 title hunt; Russell goes again in the Japanese GP this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1
Thursday 21 September 2023 18:59, UK
George Russell insists he will not repeat mistakes like the one which cost him a podium at the Singapore GP when he and Mercedes are in a world championship fight.
The 25-year-old crashed out on the final lap at Marina Bay last Sunday after clipping the wall while pursuing Lando Norris' McLaren for second place.
Russell had been pushing to try and claim a thrilling victory in the closing stages, after Mercedes rolled the dice on strategy to pit him and Lewis Hamilton for fresh tyres and then hunt down Norris and eventual Singapore-winner Carlos Sainz.
Reflecting on the crash four days later in Japan, Russell told Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz: "Sunday night, Shov [Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes trackside engineering director] gave me a phone call and he basically said 'look, don't worry about it, the only reason we were there and had a chance of victory was because of the amazing job you did the whole weekend, the qualifying performance and the pace you showed'.
"So that gave me a lot of peace of mind.
"And I knew that myself, to be honest. I knew that myself and I take pride in that. We went all in for the victory.
"We're pushing ourselves above and beyond every single lap, we're going against the best drivers in the world and on a circuit like that, you've only got to make a mistake by a couple of centimetres and you're off. Clearly got distracted or a loss of concentration when that happened.
"I saw Lando touch the wall and I clearly just sort of followed him and did it even more. Disappointing to end in that way but it's history now.
"I'm here to fight for victories, I'm here to fight for championships. This year, we're not fighting for a championship, we want to go all in for a victory and make sure we secure that second place [in the Constructors' Championship] but I can tell you, it won't happen when we're fighting for a championship."
Russell finished in the top five in 19 of the 22 races last season in his debut season with Mercedes but has only six top-five finishes so far in 2023.
Russell explained how he and Mercedes have been taking more risks this year in their bid to secure an elusive victory which has accounted for more errors.
"When I look at my championship-winning years in junior formulas or karting, I was very much the driver of just keep on getting results," he said.
"If you have to compromise one position just, it's a long game, keep on getting those results. And that was very much my mentality last year - just keep on getting those results and it paid off well.
"I think this year we're definitely rolling the dice a bit more and really going for those big results. You saw it in Singapore. In Zandvoort, we obviously got it wrong but it was another reason why I'm definitely pushing myself above and beyond.
"On pure performance, I feel that this season has been my best ever, but I reckon there's over 60 points that we've lost for a number of different reasons.
"Australia, we had the shot at the minimum a podium (before his engine failed), Zandvoort with the rain there was another podium that was gone (Mercedes delayed pitting for intermediate tyres after first-lap rain), the podium last week was obviously driver error, in Canada another mistake from my side and another 10 points lost, Monaco a few points lost.
"There have been many, many races where we lost points. When I put that in contrast to last year, I think we were in the top five in 19 of 22 races and we just kept on collecting those points.
"I've got a target this year to secure P2 in the Constructors' Championship for the team. It was quite clear this year from the beginning that we weren't going to be fighting for a championship. I don't know if that's had an impact on my mentality at all or not, but I can assure you once we're in the position to fight again for a championship, I'm sure I'll be back to the ways I know how to fight for a championship."
Russell says he will learn lessons from the crash but says he would have been similarly disappointed had he backed off on the final lap and it resulted in team-mate Lewis Hamilton overtaking him.
"I thought about it a lot, and I thought about it rationally," he said.
"We've done a lot of street circuits this year and I concluded in Monaco I don't think I touched the wall the whole weekend, in Baku the same and in Singapore, I did all of P1, P2, P3, Qualifying and 61 laps of the race of being millimetres from the wall and not once even grazing it. How I clobbered it like that, I don't really know!
"It's very challenging. You're so close to the car in front, you're on a street circuit, you can't really see the walls and you're kind of just following the car ahead of you.
"There are many lessons I can take. Should I have taken it easier on that last lap? Or maybe if I took it easy and Lewis overtook me, I'd be kicking myself for doing that. We're racers, it doesn't matter if it's lap one of the race, last lap or mid-race, we're pushing for victory and sometimes you go half a per cent over the limit and you get bitten."
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