George Russell’s Pirelli tyre complaints in Azerbaijan labelled “complete nonsense”
"It would be showing up, up and down the pitlane. But it’s not showing up at McLaren, I wonder why."
Former F1 team manager Peter Windsor has labelled George Russell’s Pirelli tyre complaints as “complete nonsense”
Following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Russell was vocal in complaining about the inconsistent performance of the Pirelli tyres.
Russell felt Mercedes were nowhere on the medium tyre in the first half of the race before showing race-winning performance when he switched to the hard tyres.
After the race, Russell called for “serious conversations” with Pirelli, describing the situation as “not good enough”.
However, Windsor - who was previously team manager for Williams and Ferrari - believes Russell’s theory doesn’t line-up given how consistent McLaren are.
Windsor said on The F1 Hour podcast: “I think it’s complete nonsense [tyre lottery], because if there was a big difference between one set of softs and another, or one set of mediums then another.
“It would be showing up, up and down the pitlane. But it’s not showing up at McLaren, I wonder why.
“Maybe it is to tiny degrees, but no more than you would have got from Bridgestone or Michelin anyways.”
Russell was also criticised for his handling of a yellow flag incident in Azerbaijan.
The Mercedes driver escaped a penalty for driving too quickly under yellow flags in Q1.
Windsor thinks it was “dangerous” from Russell and he has nothing to prove.
“It’s not clever for George to say, oh well I’m going to go for it anyway,” Windsor added.
“What’s clever about that? It’s just dangerous actually, to be honest.
“George doesn’t need to prove his virility or his bravery. We see that in the race car anyway.”
Russell ultimately finished third in Baku after a collision between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz on the penultimate lap.
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