Mr. Consistency Takes New Meaning as Carlos Sainz’s American Heartache Not the First in George Russell’s List of F1 Victims

After getting involved in yet another incident at the US Grand Prix, George Russell is earning a reputation in Formula 1 that he will not like. The 1st lap crash with Carlos Sainz was his 5th such incident in 2022. The most dangerous crash came in at Silverstone with Zhou Guanyu, where the Chinese driver thankfully came out unscathed.

George Russell has so far crashed with 5 different drivers in 4 different races. The first of the season was the 1st lap incident with Zhou Guanyu in the British Grand Prix. The 2nd incident happened in the very next race in Austria where he crashed with Sergio Perez. That was another first-lap incident.

In the Singapore GP, Russell raced hard against Valtteri Bottas and went into the run-off area after clipping the Fin’s front wing. In the same race, Russell turned into Mick Schumacher, which prompted both of them to pit.

George Russell’s first lap incident with Carlos Sainz

The first lap incident with George Russell ended up becoming Carlos Sainz’s 6th DNF of the season. The Spaniard was fighting Max Verstappen, who had taken the lead and was turning in on the corner. While the Spaniard was ahead of Russell, maintaining the racing line, Russell failed to brake and spun Sainz. The resultant damage ruled him out of the race.

The stewards investigated the incident and gave the Mercedes driver a 5-second time penalty. Russell had minor front-wing damage, but Carlos’ race was ruined. He had a rare P1 start, which came to nothing after the incident.

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George went on to take P5 and the fastest lap of the race. His teammate Lewis Hamilton drove beautifully and narrowly missed out on the race win, finishing P2.

The pattern in George Russell’s involvement in crashes

The crashes involving George Russell show a pattern. Out of the 5 crashes he has been part of until now, 3 have come in the first lap. Does this mean that his nickname, ‘Mr Consistency’ has a whole new meaning now?

Moreover, the kind of hard racing starts he takes can prove fruitful for drivers who start out at the front of the grid. However, such a race strategy does not help when you start further down the lineup.

The heavy crash with Guanyu at Silverstone saw him out of the race as well. However, in other incidents, he took minor damages or tire punctures.

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Until now, George has gotten away with minor time penalties on some incidents. He, however, has to be careful not to get reckless and ruin his and others’ races.