Russell reveals increased turbulence causing F1 helmet issues

Mercedes driver George Russell has raised concerns over driver comfort with increased levels of dirty air contributing to helmet turbulence in the 2024 Formula 1 season.

Dirty air has increasingly become a topic of conversation with the current generation of F1 machinery, limiting how closely drivers can follow each other in the ground effect era.

However, Russell has raised concerns over driver comfort with increasing wake levels leading to helmets lifting in high turbulence.

“It’s been a bit of a theme this year,” the Mercedes driver told Motorsport.com after once again reporting helmet issues during the Japanese Grand Prix.

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“But I have had no problem with helmets in practice and qualifying, and then as soon as we get to the race with all the turbulence and cars around there’s lots of buffeting and struggling a bit in this regard.

“The cars are definitely harder to follow recently than they have been in the past.”

After an eventful race in Suzuka, Russell crossed the line in seventh place as Mercedes continues to search for a podium with its W15.

The Mercedes drivers have noted bouncing issues with the W15 throughout the early stages of the campaign, but Russell found himself with a steering vibration to boot last time out.

“Yeah, I’m not too sure where that came from. There may be a small flat spot, I just need to assess it,” he said.

Despite having faced issues during the race, the Briton was able to place McLaren rival Oscar Piastri under pressure and pass the Australian in the closing stages.

The pair made contact at the final chicane with Russell was placed under investigation by the FIA stewards for the incident. However, the Briton escaped punishment with no further action taken.

“It was a good race, a good battle. Obviously, I had a little bit of a late lunge on him,” he explained.

“Felt like I gave him enough room, but made a bit of contact at the apex. I was a bit surprised to see him go straight on, but at the end, I managed to pass him away.

“It was so tight between the four teams after Red Bull, and you’re seeing only a tenth and a half or two-tenths splitting probably six cars in qualifying and ultimately it feels like you finish where you start. So we had a bad day yesterday [qualifying] and paid the price today.

“I think it made sense to start on the hard [at the restart], it just gave us this flexibility. But I lost loads of time behind Lewis at the beginning.

“Once we pitted the pace was quite strong I think, in line with Charles [Leclerc] and Lando [Norris]. So had we started a few positions higher it would have been a different race.”