Saying Carlos Sainz’s win is George Russell’s loss will not be a vague statement given how the two drivers have ended up in a starkly contrasting situation in recent times. Whenever Sainz has won a race, Russell, unfortunately, ended up crashing into the barriers or in the gravel. However, one could say that David Croft is the one who could have inadvertently pulled off the infamous commentator’s curse from the box!
Even though it is definitely a joke and the readers might find it hilarious, Crofty has actually come up to offer his apologies on social media. The Sky Sports commentator apologized to the Mercedes driver for striking him with the commentator curse again.
This comes after his colleague Karun Chandhok jokingly mentioned him in a video on X (formerly Twitter), saying that how the British commentator is a “very powerful man”. To which, Croft replied, “Oh dear, has the commentator’s curse struck again?!!! I’m so sorry George.”
Sainz won the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix and the 2024 Australian Grand Prix in a brilliant fashion. According to the video, Russell crashed out of these very races, and the timing of the crashes makes it worthy enough to have all the attention.
In these two races, whenever Croft uttered “You can hear the cheers of the crowd,” one could find the #63 driver in the barriers, unfortunately.
Interestingly, the Mercedes driver also faced a DNF on Lap 1 in Silverstone, 2022 when his Ferrari counterpart won the race. Nonetheless, keeping the jokes aside, Russell’s crash has proved to be a huge blow to Toto Wolff’s team.
How did George Russell’s crash cost Mercedes?
Mercedes has been struggling to make amends even in the third year of the current regulations. The W15 is comparatively slower than its competitors and therefore, finishing in the top positions often becomes a tough task.
Amid this, Russell’s crash proved to be salt in their wounds. The 26-year-old driver was running in P7 behind Fernando Alonso with a potential six points to his name. However, his charge to overtake Alonso turned futile after he lost control of his car in turn 6 and hit the barrier at high speed.
Notably, the FIA penalized Alonso for his role in sending George Russell into the barrier. The governing body believed that the Aston Martin driver slowed down more than required before turn 7, which resulted in Russell losing control of his car. As a result, they slapped Alonso with a 20-second time penalty.
Lewis Hamilton had a DNF in the race already in Lap 17. Therefore, Russell’s DNF meant the Silver Arrows could not take anything out of the Australian GP. All in all, Mercedes are currently struggling in P4 in the Constructors’ Championship with 26 points after three races and does not look to improve anytime soon.
