George Russell hopes “common sense” solution is found amid F1 tyre rule change

George Russell says he hopes “common sense prevails” and teams are given an extra set of tyres after running was limited during a rain-hit second practice at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.

Intermittent light rain at Suzuka left the track too wet for dry tyres and too dry for wets throughout FP2, resulting in a lack of track action and only a handful of drivers setting lap times.

A tweak to the tyre allocation regulations for 2024 may have partly been to blame for the lack of running, with teams cautious to burn through sets of tyres which may be required later in the weekend.

“It’s such a shame for all the fans here, people watching at home, or those who have travelled three-quarters of the way around the world. To not do any laps is pretty annoying,” Russell said after FP2.

“I hope the FIA allows all the teams to carry over a set of tyres into FP3 because, ordinarily in FP3, we don’t do many laps – just practicing for qualifying.

“So that’d be great for us and the fans. So I hope common sense prevails there and I hope we just find a solution for these kinds of conditions because it’s not the first time this has happened and it definitely won’t be the last time.”

Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton said the tyre rule change “doesn’t make sense”.

“It’s a shame we didn’t get that session,” he said. “They have changed the tyre rule so therefore no-one goes out and runs the intermediate, which doesn’t make sense really, but there you go.”

Explaining the impact of the change, former Aston Martin F1 strategist Bernie Collins told Sky F1: “Last year, we had a standard four intermediates. But then, if you ran [a set] on a Friday, you got an extra intermediate for Saturday and Sunday.

“So, overall, you had five, but you’d only four available at one time.

“This year, they’ve changed that you have five for the whole weekend. Regardless of whether you use it or not [on Friday], you don’t get any fresh ones for tomorrow.

“What that means is, in the past people would have run on a Friday knowing they got the extra intermediate, so there’s no disadvantage.

“Those that ran today – and some did do laps on the intermediate today – the person in the garage next to you, if it’s wet tomorrow, has a fresher intermediate than you do.

“Around here, every little helps. It all counts and adds up. So they are going to feel at a disadvantage.

“We’re not expecting it to be wet, but you never know. So, because of that regulation, I think maybe they’ll look at it again and say ‘Actually, that did limit running today’.”