Russell 'would understand' if Verstappen leaves F1

"I can totally understand why driving the Nordschleife puts a smile on his face. I've driven hundreds of laps around it on the simulator. And I would love to have that chance to go and race around the Nordschleife.

"But my goal now is to become a Formula 1 world champion. If I have four of them under my belt, I'd probably be doing the same, so he's in a very different stage of his career."

What is the 'low-hanging fruit' on engine rules?

Russell is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association and said it had fed into ongoing talks aimed at addressing some of the drivers' complaints about the new rules.

"The two headline points are flat-out qualifying, so no lift and coast, and then reducing the closing speeds," Russell said.

He added that there was "a lot of low-hanging fruit" that rule-makers could address.

Among these is to remove a lower limit at which teams can recharge the cars' batteries when at full throttle - known as 'super-clipping' in F1 jargon.

At the moment, this is set at 250kw, rather than the maximum recharge limit of 350kw which can be applied when a driver has lifted off the throttle and/or is braking.

Having the lower limit means drivers are forced to do more 'lift and coast' - when they lift off the accelerator and let the car run before braking for a corner.

"The minus 350 kilowatts super-clip is a no-brainer, and that already in itself is going to avoid a lot of lift and coast," Russell said.

"And there's other small parts of the regulation that say you can only de-rate the engine [recover energy] at a certain rate. So on a very short straight, there isn't enough time to go from 350kw to a super-clip because the straight is too short.

"Some small changes around these regulations will have a major improvement for the overall driving experience.

"This break's offered a good opportunity for everyone to go around that loop. The FIA have been in a lot of comms with a handful of drivers."

'I've maximised my results'

Image caption,

Kimi Antonelli (left) finished second in Australia to Russell, whose lowest finish this season is fourth in Japan

Russell headed into the five-week break enforced on F1 by the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Grands Prix second in the championship, trailing team-mate Kimi Antonelli by nine points.

The Chinese and Japanese Grands Prix did not go Russell's way - he had a technical problem in qualifying in China, where Antonelli took pole position and converted into a win, and in Japan a safety car helped the Italian teenager leap to the front after a slow start.

Russell said: "When I look at the circumstance of the last two races, I actually feel like I've maximised my results and that's all I can do.

"As long as I maximise my points by the end of the season, what happens race by race, no-one remembers. And that is my goal.

"That is what I'm confident in achieving over a course of a championship, consistency. Good results on the bad days, victory on the good days, and that is going to continue to be my goal every single weekend."

Antonelli, who has won two of the three races, said: "It's been a better start than what we all anticipated and hoped for, at least on my side. Expectations are automatically a bit different now.

"But I still try to keep the same mindset as I had in the first three races, just trying to put myself in the best position as possible to then achieve a great result.

"What I don't want to do is start to think about the final result or a long-term result."