George Russell warns F1 over risks of “horrific incident” at Brazil GP

George Russell has warned that a repeat of the weather that impacted Formula 1 qualifying in Sunday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix could lead to a “horrific incident”. 

Torrential rain caused qualifying at Interlagos to be almost immediately red-flagged and the session was stopped for almost an hour and a half because conditions were deemed too dangerous.

Qualifying eventually resumed and was able to be completed, but several drivers felt that conditions, which proved a first proper test of the extreme wet tyres in 2026, were borderline.

Mercedes driver Russell, who ended up second-fastest but starts seventh due to a grid penalty for an engine change, said: “Q1 was extremely challenging. The visibility was zero down the straight into Turn 4. I was wheel-spinning in fifth gear over 200 kilometres an hour, aquaplaning. 

“When you're aquaplaning on the straight and you can't see in front of you, it's... I'm not even sure what the word is to describe it. It does seem a bit crazy, I guess that's what we have to deal with. 

“I love driving in the rain here, but at some point, if that was a race, there was no way we should be driving in that because the chances of seeing a really, really horrific incident are very, very high.” 

Rain has already hit Sao Paulo on Sunday and the forecast suggests that showers could affect the 71-lap race around Interlagos, which is famous for its unpredictable weather. 

Lando Norris, who stormed to pole position for McLaren, described the conditions as “some of the wettest” he had ever driven in. 

“I'm hoping for a wet race,” he added. “There’s a good likelihood it'll be wet. There's a bit of rain, I think, tomorrow at times, and it'll still be damp through the day, so we could just have an exciting race with a little bit of everything, honestly.

"These are conditions where you feel like you can make a little bit more of a difference at times, for sure. And I feel like I'm against good guys who also have the capabilities of going for pole, and today we managed to do it because I put two good laps together and I had a good gap, and we managed things well.

"It was tense when you want to push so much. You need to kind of learn about the conditions, but you also need to not make a single mistake.

"But actually, I felt pretty confident through the whole of qualifying. Q3 was definitely the trickiest because it was also difficult to see, because of the light, where were the dry bits, the wet bits and puddles, things like that. So, more rewarding."