Gutted for George—The Perils of Having a Favourite Driver | Singapore GP 2023
I love the entire F1 grid. Unlike my Lewis-Hamilton-hating father, there truly isn’t a single driver who I would hate to see do well. It certainly is annoying having to hear the Dutch National Anthem after almost every race this season, but I refuse to detest any driver who does well or exceeds expectations.
Although I love all the drivers, there are a select few who I root for week in and week out. One of those drivers is George Russell. As controversial as he may be, I love George for his talent, determination, and I admire the way he thinks during races. Now, there are certain things George has done or said that I don’t agree with but at the end of the day, the George Russell hill is one I would die on.
As a George Russell fan, today was a rough day.
I was banking on a “George win” today in Singapore because I felt like he had it in him. With Max out of the picture it was really anybody’s ball game and the tight battle between the top 4 runners at the end of the race proved that. But I just had a feeling that George would be the one to do it and boy oh boy did it seem possible after Lap 45/62.
In the closing stages of the race, George was running P2 behind race leader, Carlos Sainz. Although the gap between himself and Carlos was nowhere near a Verstappen kind of lead, George did not really have an advantage over Carlos and was not making any significant progress. On lap 44, a VSC was deployed after Esteban Ocon suffered a failure and was found stationary on track. While everyone was on used hards, Mercedes decided to take the risk of losing track position to bring in George and Lewis for fresh mediums. From P4, with a 16 second gap from Carlos, I honestly didn’t believe George was going to have enough laps to go for the win (which turned out to be correct), but when the extremely knowledgeable Martin Brundle says the call was “genius,” then you know he’s got a good shot.
After he stole P3 from Charles Leclerc and caught up to Lando Norris with a decent amount of laps remaining, the “George Win” that I had been praying for was in sight.
But Carlos had a trick up his sleeve. Carlos’ impressive DRS strategy that protected both himself and Lando from being overtaken made all my hope for George fade away. “A P3 finish is something I can live with,” is what I told myself. It hurt that he was P2 before he boxed for mediums, but I appreciated the bold strategy from Mercedes and applauded Carlos for his clever tactics.
But then it all went sour in the final lap.
George clipped the wall at Turn 10 and crashed into the barriers.
DNF.
I felt my heart sink faster than Max Verstappen in his RB19.
I was absolutely gutted.
When Carlos crossed the finish line to win the Singapore Grand Prix, I couldn’t even celebrate. Ever since Bahrain, I have been looking forward to a non-Red Bull victory. Boring race after boring race, Verstappen win after Verstappen win, I always tuned in for every race with the hope that something would spice up the season and end Max and Red Bulls streak. And now that it was finally happening, I couldn’t even enjoy it because my heart was heavy for George.
At around 10:00am, my day was officially ruined.
After binge watching Footasylum’s “Does the Shoe Fit?” series on YouTube, Chunkz and Filly made me laugh so much that I forgot all about the heartbreak I witnessed in the morning. But just when I thought my day had turned around, I scrolled through TikTok and saw George’s post-race interview with Sky Sports.
It was so painful to watch that I felt ill.
And then I began to ask the “What if…” questions. What if Mercedes never brought in George? What if they only boxed Lewis for mediums? I think their chances of a 1–2 or at least a 2–3 was more viable since George would be a buffer between Carlos and his buddy, Lando. At least then if it didnt work out, nobody would lose out.
I wondered if the pressure from Lewis influenced George to make a mistake and hit the wall. Over the radio Lewis said “George needs to pick up the pace, if he can,” but I wondered, “What more could George have done with the DRS train with such few laps? Could he have done more?”
I always thought George was good under pressure, but maybe the Singapore heat, the physical and mental strain this race has on the body, and the lack of time was just too much to handle. Is George championship winning material or is he lacking in the stress management department like Charles?
I then wondered if Lewis could’ve done it. Some say George was the fastest, others say Lewis was (I mean, he did get fastest lap), but with Carlos and Lando working together, I reckon Lewis would have also encountered difficulty overtaking.
But all this thinking got me nowhere.
As much as I love Carlando, it was hard to cheer up and soak in their success. Carlos drove a fantastic race — he was calm, collected, focused, and a true mastermind behind the wheel. But when one of your favourite drivers crashes dramatically in the final lap in a tight battle for the lead and misses out on a bag of points and a podium, the misery is not something you can just switch off.
And that is one of the things I hate about having favourite drivers. Their happiness is your happiness. Their success is your success. But their pain is your pain. And it is simply not a fun ride unless, of course, your favourite driver is Max.
I miss the days when I could just enjoy the races for what they were. I miss when I used to cheer for every driver and could be happy with any result. But the problem with F1 is that when you get too close, you start putting all your eggs in one basket or two. When your driver does well, its sunshine and rainbows. But when they do poor, it feels like the end of the world. At least for me thats what it feels like. But as my wise old Hamilton-hating father would say, “that’s Formula 1 for ya!”
