George Russell has revealed that the drivers have already discussed the idea of introducing a ‘position penalty’ in F1 after multiple drivers complained of the impact – or lack thereof – that five-second time penalties are having.
Multiple drivers have criticised the current penalty system recently after several instances of drivers attempting audacious lunges, abusing track limits or refusing to concede positions after illegal overtakes, only to utilise their stronger pace to open up a gap larger than the five seconds lost.
Russell has benefitted from this on a couple of occasions recently, first when failing to hand the place back to Esteban Ocon after an illegal move at turn one in Monza, and then again last weekend at the Circuit of the Americas when he overtook McLaren driver Oscar Piastri while off the track.
Adding his thoughts on the penalty debate, Russell said: “I think time penalties are so race dependent. We’ve spoken about potentially a position penalty, which is more penalising. If there’s gravel there, if someone pushes you wide, you’re going to end up in the gravel.
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“So you’re not really planning to go there. Whereas I was always intending to go around the outside, hoping that it would leave me a bit of space. And if it didn’t, it would just push me wide onto a bit of tarmac.
“And you sort of worry about the consequences after. I don’t enjoy racing like that. And something does need to change. It’s only probably three circuits in the whole season where it’s like that.”
One driver who has been pushing for change extremely publicly is Alex Albon. The Williams driver claimed that the current system is not proving enough of a deterrent to stop drivers in the top teams from taking unnecessary risks after he was barged out of the way by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in Singapore.
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Russell did, however, stress the importance of addressing the different characteristics of different tracks when handing out penalties. “At the end of the day, we’re all racing to the same rules,” he explained.
“And naturally, if you’re racing in Monaco, you can’t go beyond the limit, because you’ll end up in the wall. When you race in Japan, you can’t go over the limit, because you’ll end up in the gravel.
“Whereas here your only consequence is running off onto a bit of tarmac. Monza example, coming out of pits, I went over the limit, knowing that I’ve got a get-out-of-jail-free card. And the same in Barcelona. You don’t want to have a get-out-of-jail-free card. So the FIA need to find a way to avoid that.”
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