Russell won’t change his approach following Imola Safety Car F1 shunt

George Russell says he will not be adopting a 'cautious' approach following his shunt under the F1 Safety Car at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Russell had been running inside the top ten at Imola and was on course to score his maiden points in F1.

The Mercedes junior then lost control of his car while warming up his tyres under the Safety Car, spinning into the barriers on the approach to the Acqua Minerale corner.

Subsequently, Russell wrote a letter to the team apologising for his mistake, which he explained in more detail ahead of this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix.

“I often send my thoughts and views to them,” Russell said. “Obviously firstly I was apologising for the mistake I made which was, I felt, unacceptable from my side.

“Following that mistake it gave me a bit of time to think about the racing approach. Racing sometimes rewards risk-takers but it also sometimes rewards a more cautious approach.”

Despite his costly mistake last time out at Imola, Russell says he has no intentions of changing his approach to driving.

“Last weekend perhaps or probably most likely I would have come away with a result had I taken the more cautious approach. But it then made me think where do you draw the line? Do you be more cautious on your quali lap? Do you be more cautious with the set-up? Do you be more cautious with the pit stop?

“We’re all racers, we’re all here to absolutely push boundaries and in doing that mistakes will come along. And it also made me think should we fear mistakes and I don’t think we should. This is what I said to them.

“Do I regret what happened? Absolutely. But will it change my approach this weekend and moving forwards? No, it won’t. And we’re all here to push the boundaries because we’re all racers and that’s what we do when we go racing.”

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton and Haas’ Romain Grosjean were the notable names to offer Russell support publicly after the race at Imola.

“I had a huge amount of support which meant a huge amount to me,” Russell added. “It was very surprising: From race winners, fellow drivers, ex-world champions, even people outside of Formula 1.

“Getting that support, obviously everybody knows that we are pushing to the absolute limit and sometimes the car can just go from nowhere. It meant a lot but it doesn’t take anything away from the mistake I made but it’ll help me moving forward, I’m sure.”