Russell: 'Dangerous' 2022 F1 cars a recipe for disaster

The Mercedes driver had already highlighted concerns about the new generation of F1 cars after Friday practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and his criticism continued following qualifying. 

Russell feels the severe porpoising and bottoming-out at high-speed, combined with the cars being run so close to the ground, is “a recipe for disaster”. 

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"I think it is just a matter of time before we see a major incident," Russell said in Baku. "A lot of us can barely keep the car in a straight line over these bumps and we are going around the last two corners at 300km/h and we are bottoming out and you can visibly see on the tarmac how close the cars are running to the ground.

"Formula 2 are in the same position as well, they have a similar sort of philosophy, and it is just unnecessary with the technology we have in today’s environment, it just seems unnecessary that we are running a Formula 1 car at over 200 mph millimetres from the ground and it’s a recipe for disaster.

"I don’t really know what the future holds but I don’t think we can sustain this for three years or however long these regulations are in force for."

Asked if he thinks the 2022 cars are dangerous, Russell replied: "It definitely does feel dangerous. It just feels unnecessary. 

"You are skating along the track and when you are hitting the ground the tyres aren’t in force with the ground so much, so it’s only a matter of time until we see something."

Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton echoed Russell’s concerns after struggling with bouncing on his W13 throughout qualifying. 

The seven-time world champion said the issue was so bad he was simply focused on “keeping the thing out of the wall” at high-speed. 

“The visibility has been the same for us all year,” Hamilton explained. “It is definitely tough. For me it was about keeping the thing out of the wall on the fast, high speed kerbs.” 

Hamilton added: “It is a safety thing for sure. It was bottoming around corners where you are doing 180mph and having big big bottoming and there is not much you can do to stop it.

“We cannot have this for four years of this car, so I think they do need to work on it."