Russell raises safety concerns after F2 crash at Madrid street circuit

George Russell described Madrid’s new F1 street circuit as having less margin for error than Monaco because of its high speeds and fast corners. His comments followed an F2 crash, while the Mercedes driver topped the opening F1 practice session

Madrid: Mercedes driver George Russell said the new Madrid street circuit has “less margin for error” than even the tight streets of Monaco following an F2 car crash on Friday.

Russell had previously described the Circuito de Madring, the new F1 circuit, as the “craziest circuit on the calendar” in the pre-weekend press conference. He has now reacted to the crash, saying the Madrid street track offers an even smaller margin for error than Monaco because of the speeds.

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“I would put this as a circuit that has less margin than Monaco,” Russell said, as quoted by The Independent. “Purely because of the speed. In Monaco, the walls are closer, but you’re going slower… if you make a mistake, you’re in the wall less quickly, and if you lock up, you can recover it.

“Here, there’s a lot of really fast corners and the barriers are almost coming onto the track. If you are to go wide and hit the wall, you’re not hitting it at the same angle the car is going.”

He also cautioned about possible steering lock-ups and said the Madrid track was reminiscent of the challenges at Baku and Jeddah.

“Then another element of the challenge here is that there will be a lot of lock-ups. If you lock up at Turn Five, the wall is right in front of you. Very similar to Baku and then Jeddah-esque too,” he said.

Shortly before the first F1 practice session, Thai driver Inthraphuvasak escaped unhurt from an F2 crash, with his car bursting into flames during the first-ever race weekend at the Madring GP. The racer jumped out of the car unhurt and over the wall, while marshals arrived to extinguish the flames.

In the first F1 practice session, Russell clocked the fastest time of 1:34.077, finishing a little less than three-tenths clear of his teammate and current championship leader Kimi Antonelli. The Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were third and fourth, respectively.

Max Verstappen, who is looking to cause some “chaos” at the Spanish GP given the unpredictable nature of the track, was fifth, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris in sixth, Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad in seventh, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in eighth, Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg in ninth and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson in 10th.