F1 team SAVED Russell from major injuries after horror crash

A Formula 1 team’s sharp reaction to George Russell’s heavy shunt at the Australian Grand Prix helped to avoid a much more serious situation.

After losing control of his Mercedes car on the last lap of the race, while following Fernando Alonso, Russell hit the barriers and was spat back onto the track sideways.

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The main issue was the nature of the corner where he laid helpless – turn six, which is very high-speed and has a blind entry.

It could have been a devastating impact if Lance Stroll who was behind Russell at the time, was to enter the corner at his usual speeds.

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Thankfully, his Aston Martin race engineer – Ben Mitchell, responded in double quick time to alert Stroll of the danger ahead.

It was a move that saved a possibly fatal impact, with Mitchell’s reactions the sole reason that his Canadian driver didn’t careering into the corner.

The danger posed by the incident and other crashes since a reprofiling of turn six in 2022 poses questions about the safety of the run-off and barriers at that part of the circuit.

Perhaps a move to push the barrier back, or reprofile the exit of the corner could help avoid similar or worse incidents in the future – preventing the risk of putting the lives of drivers across all categories in danger.

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