Russell has highlighted the high straightline speeds of the 2026 F1 cars
Mercedes driver George Russell says that the high straightline speeds that the 2026 Formula 1 regulations will generate will create a safety challenge for the sport.
The new cars will feature active front and rear wings that will reduce downforce on the straights and create higher speeds than seen under the current rules.
Improved safety is already part of the 2026 rules package, but GPDA director Russell says that standards will have to keep up with the increased speeds.
“I think the cars are going to take a quite a big turn in terms of how they perform,” he said. “They’re going to be exceptionally quick in the straights, 360 probably most tracks, which is pretty impressive.
“Obviously then the safety needs to be probably improved, because having a crash at 360/370, is going to be pretty crazy.
“But then the cornering speeds are going to be massively reduced. So I’m sure the teams will find a way to bring that closer to where we’ve been recently.
Asked to elaborate on the safety aspects he said: “I think when it comes to safety unfortunately, history has told us that incidents need to happen before changes are made and everybody needs to be doing a really thorough job ahead of these regulations, because the cars are going to be so quick.
“It’s going to have so little downforce in the straights, it’s almost going to feel like probably you’re floating, you’re just flying through the air.
“Then you can imagine in a race that starts raining, and you’re on slick tyres, and you’re doing 250mph, you’re on a street circuit, that’s going to be a bit of a sketchy place to be. So these are questions that need to be answered.
“And to be fair to the FIA, they are fully aware of this, and on top of this, and they’re looking at all of the possible scenarios of what could happen. So time will tell, but the cars are already fast as they are, suddenly, where do we stop, are we going to get to 400 km/h?
“Do the fans really need or want to see this? What is it that we want to achieve? For me, it’s, it’s good racing. I don’t really mind too much about how quick the cars are around the track, you want to have good racing, hard racing, and strong competition, ideally, between every team every driver.”
Russell also harked back to the last regulations that ended in 2021, suggested that he preferred those cars/
“From a driving standpoint, you want the fastest cars, you want to feel like you’re a fighter jet,” he said.
“And in 2020-’21, that’s how it felt. Now these cars are getting very quick again, in this current era, and I’m sure next year, maybe it’s even going to be battling 2020 lap times that we were seeing.
“It would be a shame to lose some of that performance of the car. But on the flip side, it will improve the race if there’s less downforce and there’s less dirty air. I think to conclude with that, you can’t have it all. And you’ve got to choose your battles.”
Russell also made some interesting observations about the progress Mercedes is making with its 2026 engine, and drawing on experience within the organisation gained with other projects.
“I think the PU regs are exciting,” he said. “And I think that the manufacturers are going to take strides over these years in the development, we already see it within Mercedes.
“The progress we’re making is looking really promising at the moment with the sustainable fuel, with Petronas and the experience the team had from Formula E, and even the hypercar project that the team did eight years ago, not knowing eight years ago that it was going to be beneficial for the future. So that’s really interesting.”
Adam Cooper F1 