Mercedes' George Russell expects crashes if F1 bans tyre blankets in 2024
Mercedes' George Russell expects crashes if F1 bans tyre blankets in 2024
F1 teams set to vote in July on whether tyre blankets will be banned for 2024 season; George Russell expects crashes in cooler races if ban goes ahead; Pirelli says F1 drivers will need to adapt their driving styles; Toto Wolff questions the risk vs reward of proposal to remove warmers
Very interesting. Although honestly, I'm not sure the tradeoffs are worth it here.
Like, yes, sustainability is great, but how much power are these blankets really consuming? Relative to the sustainability cost of repairing an F1 car from a wreck? In material, energy use, all of that, I don't imagine removing these blankets for an entire season of F1 would offset the environmental cost of even one additional crash in a year, and I think you'd be lucky if it ends up being that few, especially in the first season of this change.
So I'm just not sure that reasoning tracks. If they want to say "hey, additional challenge for the drivers, we think it'll make racing more exciting", then they should just say that.