F1 News: George Russell Calls For FIA To Reverse Last-Minute Qatar GP Change

George Russell has called for a rule reversal by the FIA after it decided to impose a mandatory three-stop stint length on drivers for the Qatar Grand Prix. In addition, Russell also urged the governing body to follow a communication protocol because he learned of the three-stop rule through a WhatsApp message from another driver.

Concerns about the tires cropped up on Saturday morning after Pirelli announced that its engineers found microscopic cuts on the tires due to the excessive time spent on the kerbs of the Losail Circuit.

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In response to Pirelli's findings, the FIA adjusted the track between turns 12 and 13 and gave drivers an extra ten minutes of practice time before the Sprint Shootout.

In addition, the governing body imposed a maximum stint length of 18 laps that would require drivers to change tires three times since none of the drivers have completed a stint that could be done over the course of the 57-lap race.

However, Mercedes driver and director of the Grand Prix Drivers Association George Russell believes that a mandate is not necessary. Expressing his concerns to RacingNews365, he said:

“It’s kind of part and parcel of a Sprint race weekend.

"If we go to a track like Barcelona, you do the practicing, [then] you know in the race after all of the information gathered [whether] it has to be a two or three-stop.

"If you try a one-stop, it’s just not going to work.

"This weekend, we had no data.

"If we had the [usual] three sessions we’d have learnt that the tyre’s wearing and you got to do a two or three-stop.

"What the FIA did with the small modification to the track was good. I was a bit sceptical but I thought it was a good step, but I don’t think they need to intervene to say it needs to be a mandatory three-stop."

Given the lack of data, Russell added that the Sprint race could be made use of to obtain the data, which could then help reach a decision on whether it will be safe to run the race without any issues. He added:

“I think give us the data, see how much wear there was on the Soft, the Medium and we should all be smart enough to make a decision based on that.

"You should be able to see even with the 10 laps we did [in the Sprint], how much wear there is, how it would have progressed had there been a 19-lap race."

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Russell also called for an improved line of communication between the FIA and the drivers since he received the rule change information on WhatsApp. He revealed:

"I found out from a text on WhatsApp from another driver, which is obviously not ideal.

"I think Nikolas Tombazis and Steve Nielsen are aware and recognise the communication line between the FIA and the drivers isn't strong enough.

"It needs to have a better cooperation, because a lot of these things directly impact us. We can also give our first hand view from the cockpit, which can help aid some of these decisions."