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George Russell has questioned the timing of the red flag at the 2023 Australian GP on Sunday, which turned the race upside down.
The Mercedes driver was leading the race when Alex Albon crashed, which brought out a safety car. As soon as the safety car was out, Russell jumped into the pitlane to change tyres, while the chasing pack continued to stay out.
Russell was banking on using an alternate strategy where he wouldn't have to stop again compared to his competition - Red Bull's Max Verstappen and teammate Lewis Hamilton. It was poised to be a compelling fight for the lead but was turned on its head, as a red flag was brought out. That destroyed Russell's race, as his stop was neutralised. Talking about the same, Russell said:
"I thought the red flag was totally unnecessary. There was obviously quite a bit of gravel on the track, but there was a clear racing line. We've seen it far worse in the past.
"It's sort of reminiscent of the decision of last week in Saudi to bring out the safety car when the car was totally off the track. So, I don't really know what's going on with some of the decisions at the moment. We're all trying to work together with the FIA to improve things, but it's seemingly a bit of a challenge."
Lando Norris in agreement with George Russell on red flags
Lando Norris was in agreement with George Russell on the safety car situation. The McLaren driver specifically pointed out how dangerous it could have been at the second red flag restart and that he could have lost everything at that point. Norris said:
"The whole point of red flagging it, it feels like was just to put on a show. I'm the one driving the car, so I just feel like I could have been so unlucky through no reason.
"I easily could have crashed with (Nico) Hulkenberg at the end because there's people going off, and you're suddenly swerving and things like that. Because they try and put on a show, you just get unlucky, and everything can get taken away from you all of a sudden."
George Russell had a torrid time on Sunday, losing the race lead of the race and suffering a DNF due to power unit issues.
