George Russell urged 'not to over-think' race starts to avoid lap-one struggle

Russell, Williams, Styria — Photo: © LAT Images

George Russell

Russell urged 'not to over-think' race starts to avoid lap-one struggle

Williams driver is faced with numerous "variables"

Ian Parkes & Will Gray

Tuesday 29 June 2021 16:00

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George Russell has been urged to avoid over-thinking his grand prix starts if he wants to improve as an F1 driver.

The advice has come from Williams head of vehicle performance Dave Robson after Russell acknowledged following the French Grand Prix he "struggled" with his starts "since I have been in F1”, suggesting they were more difficult at the back of the grid.

Russell showed signs of improvement in Sunday's Styrian Grand Prix as he started from a career-high 10th on the grid, improving to eighth at the end of the first lap after AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc collided.

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Asked how the Briton can improve things, Robson said: “It’s really tough. It’s hard to analyse because there are so many variables, it’s so dynamic and you run the risk... if you start over-thinking it, that’s potentially a problem as well.

“So much of it is instinct, and there’s a lot of experience as well, and probably being towards the back of an F1 pack is a bit different to some of his past experiences."

Russell – trouble getting in the tyre window

Robson said he feels Russell's problems are due to him "not getting the tyres in the window on the formation lap”, while being in the wake of numerous other cars is also proving a hindrance.

Robson added: “In the first lap, once the start is over with, George has tended to struggle a bit on some of the opening corners and that’s where the wind sensitivity [of the car] plays its part.

“You’re in the wake of all those cars in front, which puts yaw angles on the car. It’s like being in a strong wind so that probably doesn’t help.

"But if you look at the pattern overall he doesn’t tend to be involved in many incidents, he doesn’t crash on the first lap.

"You might argue he’s kind of somewhat on the conservative side, but then you see that play out to be beneficial, so you can’t particularly criticise that.

“There’s no obvious thing he’s doing wrong, it’s just a really tough, instinctive battle you’ve just got to get involved with but you’ve got to have the confidence the car will allow you to do that.

“It’s something he will improve. A lot of it has to be done on instinct. Once he has a couple of good opening laps and starts to forget about it to some extent he will be a lot better off.”