George Russell, panicked, asked for the red flag during his accident, without success
George Russell had an accident in the final laps of the Australian Grand Prix this Sunday. While the driver emerged unscathed, he was very, very scared at the time of his crash, not seeing any red flag coming.
We are on the 57th lap of the Australian Grand Prix this Sunday. As Fernando Alonso struggles to maintain his position against George Russell, two laps from the finish, the Mercedes driver approaches his predecessor too quickly and locks up the front left wheel, losing the ideal racing line. George Russell then hits the barrier and is thrown with his Mercedes onto the middle of the track, where he finishes sideways, and most importantly, directly on the racing line.
Panicked, he cannot see if a car is coming, but he can see that his steering wheel is not showing any red light, a sign of a red flag. He therefore does not know if the cars behind are aware and does not see them coming.
« RED FLAG! RED FLAG! RED FLAG! I’M IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRACK!” shouted George Russell on his radio, his Mercedes just stopped during the crash.
« RED FLAG! RED FLAG! RED! RED! I’M IN THE MIDDLE! » he repeats anxiously, seeing a few seconds later that still no red flag is reported.
The race direction will not make the decision to wave the red flag. Even though the Mercedes is in the middle of the track, mostly on the racing line and just after a blind turn, only a virtual safety car is being deployed along with a double yellow flag, indicating a significant slowing down to be expected.
At that moment in the race, George Russell is in 7th place and leads his pursuer, Lance Stroll, by 12 seconds. It is this time gap that allowed the trackside marshals enough time to wave a double yellow flag during the crash, thus preventing Lance Stroll from arriving at full speed on the trajectory where the damaged Mercedes potentially was. A few seconds later, all the drivers are alerted on the radio and eventually George Russell will exit his car without difficulty.
With only one lap remaining, the race direction will let all laps be completed and Ferrari achieve its first one-two of the season and the first one since more than 2 seasons (Bahrain 2022).
On Canal+, George Russell confirmed that it was scary: « It was honestly scary, the cars come at full speed and you can’t see who’s coming. I was half a second behind Fernando Alonso and I had to brake suddenly, I went wide and hit the wall. It’s a much bigger accident than it should have been.
CRASH IMPRESSIONNANT DE RUSSELL 😱
George Russell perd l’arrière de sa monoplace dans le dernier tour 🤯
Le pilote va bien !#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/8olhO4fgNO— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) March 24, 2024
