Star Mercedes F1 driver George Russell turned into a tennis fan earlier this week as he visited the Monte Carlo Masters event to watch men’s singles world number one Novak Djokovic in action. Among all the conversations the two had together, one that was particularly interesting was about the scheduling of both sports.
When Russell explained how F1 schedules races over a calendar, Djokovic was taken aback. The Serbian was in disbelief on hearing the limited time that teams and drivers get between races and the amount they have to travel to get from one race track to another.
As for Russell and the rest of the teams and drivers, they all find themselves in the midst of an unusual four-week break at the moment. In Formula 1, barring the month-long summer break in August, teams and drivers never get a break of more than three weeks between races.
However, since the originally scheduled Chinese Grand Prix for April 16 was canceled, the next race will directly take place in Baku from April 28 to 30. After the Azerbaijan GP, the teams and drivers will visit Miami the week after.
Novak Djokovic joins George Russell in criticizing F1’s schedule
The conversation between Novak Djokovic and George Russell began with the Serbian asking the Briton, “What’s the stage now? Where are you guys going for the next one”?
When Russell responded that they just came back from Melbourne and were headed to Azerbaijan next, Djokovic seemed taken aback by the distance the drivers will have to travel. With that in mind, he asked Russell how long it takes to go from one venue to another.
Russell responded by stating, “Melbourne’s a killer. I mean, it’s probably taken a week to come back”. The Briton’s frustrations with the F1 calendar did not seem to end there as he went on to explain how much the drivers have to travel in just a few weeks.
He stated that the drivers and the teams were supposed to go to China this weekend, had the race not been canceled. After that, he added that F1 will then visit Azerbaijan and then Miami the week after.
Djokovic too then seemed to take a dig at the organizers by adding, “They don’t really keep you in one continent”. Russell then ended the conversation by explaining how discussions had previously been held about the same and how it always fell upon deaf ears.
Russell’s 2023 campaign kickstarts in disappointing fashion
After an outstanding campaign last year in which he finished fourth in the championship, George Russell’s 2023 season kickstarts in a disappointing fashion. The Briton has just scored 18 points and finds himself seventh in the championship.
He is two points behind both Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll and already 20 points behind his Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton. However, it is pertinent to note that things could have been much different had Russell had some luck two weeks ago in Australia.
The 25-year-old qualified second on the grid and also led the race for a significant amount of time until his car suffered from a power unit failure. As a result of this issue, he was forced to retire from the race and finish with no points.
