Revealed: The three topics that are most discussed in F1 driver meetings

Russell is currently head of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) - a group that represents the drivers’ voice and opinions.

• Russell explains what his F1 GPDA director role actually involves

Quite frequently, the drivers will sit down and discuss their concerns or ideas about F1.

Speaking during the Italian Grand Prix weekend, Russell shed light on what “three factors” are most talked about.

“There’s three factors,” Russell said as quoted by the Daily Express. “One, you’ve got safety which is obviously, to a degree, quite self explanatory, you want the circuits to be as safe as possible and not have unnecessary risks.

“There’s always going to be an element of danger and you want the cars to be as safe as possible naturally but you’re never going to be able to eliminate all of the risk.

“You’ve then got the on-track entertainment side of things and how exciting the races are, tyres are a factor with the degradation, the format, DRS positioning, etc, etc.

“Then you’ve got the third one, which is probably the least important [to everyone else] but to the drivers, it’s important. 

“It’s about how it feels to drive the cars. We want the fastest cars, the best cars, the latest cars, the most amount of power and we think that would add to the spectacle.

“But you can’t often achieve all of these topics.”

Russell feels F1 is in a “good place”, putting Red Bull’s domination aside.

“I think generally speaking, Formula 1 is in a good place,” he added. “If it wasn’t for the Red Bull’s dominance for the last 12 months, there has been quite a lot of exciting racing, close racing in good battles. That’s where it is at the moment for this fight for second, it is in a good place.

“Maybe the tyres have been a little bit too hard recently and it’s too many one-stops and not enough degradation to add a bit of spice in there but equally when the tyres are rubbish, we also complain. It’s trying to find that right balance and it’s never quite clear cut.”