#worse grand prix on the calender

[janesurlife]

Las Vegas trying to get on Carlos' good side after the fuck up of last year... yeah no

[umgeorge]

george russell is interviewed during the press conference on media day, singapore - september 19, 2024 (transcript under the cut)

Interviewer: "George, why don't we come to you now? Great result for you on Sunday, but it wasn't a straightforward race. We're now at another street track with the same tire compounds that we had in Baku. What learnings do you have from last week that you can apply here?" George: "Yeah, feels like every race we go to, at the moment, it's quite a unique circuit. Obviously Azerbaijan was very unique in its own way, Singapore's unique in its own way, and there's a lot of these types of tracks on the calender, and, as Oscar said, it's so competitive now at the front, and a tenth or two can be the difference between a front row start or P6 or 7 on the grid, which is very exciting. We were really strong here last year, the pace was really good in Singapore, so hopefully we can continue that good performance we had here last year and see where it takes us." Interviewer: "If your car performance is as good here as it was in the second stint in Baku, what's possible?" George: "I mean, yeah, we were really competitive in the second stint last week. Deifnitely surprised ourself there, but I think now this circuit with that extra DRS zone, I hope racing will be slightly better. It's not gonna make it worse, that's for sure, and maybe overtaking will be possible. So I think it'll still go down to qualifying. That's gonna be key, getting a good Saturday, and that'll set you up nicely for the race." Interviewer: "As you've already said, you were very competitive here last year. You qualified on the front row, you're going great guns, until the moment on the penultimate lap. Do you feel… I dunno. Do you feel that you have unfinished business in Singapore?" George: "No, not really. It's not really something I'm thinking about. It's part of racing, part of street circuits. If you're not a hundred percent focused every single lap, you're gonna get bitten, and it was a long old race. It was on the last lap, I thought the race was kind of done, and right behind Lando he kissed the wall, I touched the wall, and before I knew it I'm out of the race. But that's how the game goes, and it's not gonna change my approach one bit, how I go into this weekend. You learn from things like that." Interviewer: "How grueling is this grand prix? Is this still the toughest race for the drivers, physically?" George: "I mean, for sure it's top two with Qatar. Here and Qatar are by far the most physical races. I think here is challenging because there's so many corners; pretty relentless. Slightly easier now that we've got that straight at the back, versus what it was like a few years ago, but just with the humidity you're dripping with sweat as soon as you go outside, let alone when you're locked in a racecar for two hours." Interviewer: "Dripping with sweat. Dripping with rain, as well. You got caught in a rainstorm the other day, didn't you?" George: "Yes!" Interviewer: "Playing padel." George: "Yeah, padel is obviously the new big thing in Formula 1, so it was nice to take all of my mechanics and part of the team, and then just thunder and lightning and rain came from nowhere. So I think it's almost every year we see in Singapore there is bad weather around, so I think that was around race time, as well, that was eight PM when it poured down with rain, so if that happened on Sunday that'd probably mix things up a little bit."