George Russell gives his suggestion to improve racing in the Monaco Grand Prix

George Russell believes running the entire Monaco GP on soft tires could be a solution to improve the racing and track action. Speaking to media including Sportskeeda, the Mercedes driver felt the street track around the Principality produced dull track action.

Starting on the hard tire from fifth on the grid, George Russell did not manage to gain ground in the race which was abruptly interrupted with a red flag. The red flag would have ideally been a chance for most drivers to overtake or use pitstop strategies to jump ahead of other cars. However, the free pitstop prompted most drivers to switch to the tires they would finish on. The top ten on the grid remained unchanged until the finish line.

Asked by Sportskeeda what could be done to make the Monaco GP interesting, George Russell said:

“I think if we only brought soft tires, you know a soft tire wouldn’t last the whole race. You may need even to do two stops or somebody might try a one stop. I think just having the whole weekend on softs would solve a lot of the problems.”

With the hard tire start as an advantage, George Russell had hoped for a podium in the race with the drivers ahead of him starting on the medium. Carlos Sainz, who was ahead of him, had locked up and punctured his tires on the first lap, promoting the British driver to fourth.

Describing his own race and the chances of a podium, he added:

“I really thought I had a shot today when I saw everybody started on the mediums in front of me. Especially when Carlos had that puncture I thought we’ve got a minimum chance to fight for a podium there, maybe even more. There’s no great racing in Monaco, we need to change something to make it more interesting on a Sunday.”

The red flag also negated Russell's chances of being able to do much as the Ferrari driver was reinstated to his fourth place. The 26-year-old felt the reinstatement was unfair and strange.

Asked whether Sainz being reinstated was the correct decision, George Russell said:

“I would say no, it's not correct. So I don’t know what the ruling is exactly. Again, that was a bit strange.”

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George Russell reviews the Monaco GP radio message by Mercedes

During the race, George Russell was told by Mercedes to slow down and not go faster. Russell reckons that it was the right call as they had nothing to gain going faster knowing the Monaco circuit.

In what has been deemed as one of the most boring races after Imola, the British driver felt that despite the procession-like race, Mercedes was able to reduce the gap to the race leader Charles Leclerc and the McLaren drivers towards the end. He finished approximately 13 seconds behind the lead Ferrari and five seconds behind Lando Norris in the McLaren.

Asked if his team’s instructions to go slower in the race were correct, George Russell replied:

“It was definitely the right call. We all know how difficult it is to pass here in Monaco, there is nothing to gain by going faster. But as you look at the pace towards the end, it was 30 seconds to Charles at one point and then we brought it down to 12 seconds. Only four seconds behind the McLaren, a lot of positives to take.”

George Russell has currently finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton in most of the races so far in the 2024 season. The Briton is seventh in the driver’s championship with a total of 54 points scored whereas the 7-time champion is eighth and has scored 42 points.

Mercedes is currently fourth in the constructs standings with a total of 96 points and is behind its customer team McLaren by 88 points.