George Russell dismisses suggestions of getting lucky with the setup in Jeddah after Lewis Hamilton's 'wrong setup' remarks

George Russell recently stated that his performance at the 2023 F1 Saudi Arabian GP was not purely based on luck. His comments were essentially a response to Lewis Hamilton's statement about how Russell was lucky to get the right car setup for the race.

Russell said that his performance was "down to the preparation" he and the team put in before the race. He emphasized that the changes he made were in the "right direction," adding that he believed his setup was "better" than Hamilton's.

As quoted by Sky Sports, he said:

"I don't think there's any luck in it at all. I think it's down to the preparation you put in before the event. The changes we made overnight, I knew that was going to be the right direction with the work we did with the team. And I believed it was going to be better than the setup that Lewis opted for. I think everybody's got different preferences, I was happy with the direction I took and the work I'm doing with the engineers."

Hamilton also clarified his comments after the last race. The seven-time world champion praised Russell for working hard with the team and getting the right setup for the car.

He shared how he himself has made these kinds of changes in the past to improve the car, and concluded that it is always a hit-or-miss situation. Hamilton said:

"I want to reiterate how great a job George did on the weekend. I think the thing I was commenting on is that there's one specific thing that you can change in the suspension that you have to do over Friday night. I've done it in the past, sometimes it hasn't worked, sometimes it has, and it worked great for George and he did a great job."

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George Russell supports F1 CEO's idea of removing/reducing free practice sessions on race weekends

George Russell and other drivers like Pierre Gasly and Nyck de Vries have supported F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali's idea of removing or reducing free practice sessions in a race weekend.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, Russell proposed a new format with only one training session where all the teams can work on the setups for the race. He said:

"I don't think it's right that F1 has three times the amount of practice that you have in F3 and F2. I would leave it at a simple training session so that you can work out the setup and test things. ... I think a training session would be enough for everyone to try out everything and develop it further."

Although a few drivers support the idea of reducing free practice sessions, others, like Max Verstappen, have spoken against it. Only time will tell whether the concept will be discussed further or even be implemented into the race weekend schedule.