Mercedes’ unlucky driver George Russell: Even more worries in Singapore

Race director Riu Marques informed the teams today, Thursday, that both the Sprint and the Grand Prix in Singapore will be designated as heat races. This means that drivers are permitted to use cooling vests – and those who do not will have to carry additional ballast to compensate for the weight difference.

Among the drivers who will be racing without a cooling vest is George Russell. The Briton will have to start the race on the street circuit from the back of the field anyway, as he must fit a new power unit following his engine failure in Malaysia, which exceeds the permitted allocation.

The 28-year-old will be making his charge up the field without a cooling vest, as he has confirmed. “We won’t be wearing cooling vests because we haven’t invested enough resources to make them reliable. If it works, it’s brilliant. And I would have liked to have used it in Malaysia and in Singapore as well. But the team has told me that whilst it can invest money in developing them, that would then come at the expense of performance.”

The Mercedes driver has a solution to the difficult choice between developing the cooling vest and using the funds to improve performance: “I think the FIA should step in and set aside an additional sum within the budget cap specifically for the development of the cooling vests. Or an external company should be hired to develop the vests for everyone, and we should all contribute to the funding. Because we should all have them.”

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