"They aren't idiots": Why George Russell says F1 and FIA should be left to decide rules

But while the Mercedes driver admitted that drivers “should be involved” at some stage in the development and fine-tuning of F1’s regulations, he fell short of calling for a permanent seat at the table for the stars of F1.

This is in stark contrast to comments made by his former team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who claimed yesterday that drivers should have a say on the direction of any new rules that roll out in F1.

George Russell will have his first taste of the updated regulations this weekend

George Russell will have his first taste of the updated regulations this weekend

Instead, Russell warned that drivers may not have the best intentions when it comes to setting out regulation changes in F1.

“Obviously we're the ones who have to drive the thing, but equally we are quite selfish as well as drivers,” Russell told the media ahead of the Florida event. “What may be the best and coolest and fastest cars for us to drive may not be the most exciting from a racing perspective.

“Because, as I said, if you take the V10 era from the early 2000s that is probably a really great base of what a driver wants from a race car, but the races were boring and there was no overtaking and there weren't as many fans following the sport.”

It was these claims that F1 races had become dull that led to the development of the 2026 regulations, which have dramatically increased the number of overtakes in races. While some have called these new passes “artificial”, F1 bosses maintains that, on the whole, the changes have been good for the series – which it says is appealing to new fans and ramping up TV viewership at 2026 races.

However, the series and its governing body have taken feedback from drivers onboard in developing tweaks to the 2026 regulations.

At this weekend’s race, changes to energy deployment and harvesting in qualifying will roll out, and a tweak of the energy deployment in the start of F1 races will be trialled to prevent drivers from getting bogged down off the line.

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