“Most of the drivers I spoke with said that the fault was with Russell”– Ex-F1 driver on famous Imola crash

“Most of the drivers I spoke with said that the fault was with Russell”– Damon Hill reveals the general opinion of Formula 1 veterans.

George Russell and Valtteri Bottas locked horns against each other over the crash in Imola on Sunday, with both of them denying accusing each other of negligence. Though, Russell apologized for his actions once the dust settled down.

However, in public opinion, most of the times, one of the present sides dominate the possession of sympathies. In this case, Damon Hill has revealed that most former F1 drivers hold Russell as the guilty party.

“Most of the drivers I spoke with after the race said that the fault was with Russell. Because he was the one trying to make the transition, and everything had to go perfectly before he could complete that transition on a track with wet sections, ” said Hill. (Translated via Google Translate)

Enabling the DRS was wrong.

The race started with the track being extremely wet, and before Russell and Bottas took each other to the wall, there were several wet damps on the track, yet the DRS was enabled; therefore, Hill largely blames FIA for this carelessness.

“But I think the main problem was that DRS was turned on… I’m sure George will talk about it at the next meeting as the director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association.”

In the end, none of the parties was charged for the incident, with F1 releasing a statement that declared the result of the investigation and decreed no action against either Russell or Bottas.

Though, the crash eventually favoured Mercedes only, as Hamilton managed to recover a podium from the race, as earlier he went off-track, which could have resulted in Mercedes losing even more points, as he may not have managed to recover so many positions if rolling start hadn’t happened.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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