George Russell says Formula 1’s new circuit in Madrid “has less margin than Monaco” as the sport races there for the first time at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver set the pace in first practice at the Madring – a street-circuit style track built around an exhibition centre near the Spanish capital’s airport.
“I would put this as a circuit that has less margin than Monaco,” said Russell, who was 0.286 seconds faster than team-mate Kimi Antonelli in second place. “Purely because of the speed.
“In Monaco, the walls are closer, but because you’re going far slower, if you make a mistake, you’re not into the wall as quickly, and you can recover it sometimes, a small lock-up.”
Russell was speaking a couple of hours before a practice session that ran incident-free.
A few drivers brushed the wall, including Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, but no-one damaged their car.
Russell said: “There’s a lot of really fast corners, but the barrier is kind of like coming back onto the track. So, if you are to go wide and hit the wall, you’re not hitting it kind of at the same angle as the car is going. The wall is sort of coming in at you.”
