F1 dementia risk, warns Russell

GEORGE RUSSELL has called on Formula One to find a ‘scientific solution’ to this year’s bouncing cars or risk subjecting drivers to dementia. Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix in a sweltering Barcelona, Mercedes’ rising star was responding to cars hitting their suspension hard, causing drivers’ heads to judder up and down. Although Mercedes are particularly prone to ‘porpoising’, as the phenomenon is known, even Ferrari are troubled by the problem despite Charles Leclerc leading Max Verstappen by 19 points at the top of the standings. A 2019 survey claimed that professional footballers are three-and-a-half times more likely to die from the disease than the general population — and Sportsmail has led a campaign to tackle the issue. Russell said: ‘When you are travelling at 200mph on the straight, and you are smashing up and down on the ground, you wouldn’t choose to have it that way. ‘You could compare it to the footballers of the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties when they had the massively heavy footballs. ‘Analysis has shown that there were health consequences for these chaps who headed the ball, and things were changed. ‘Formula One is the centre of innovation and there is no reason why we cannot find a scientific solution for this.’ Headaches and the odd bruise apart, Russell is enjoying his early life at Mercedes, having outshone Lewis Hamilton in the opening five races to sit 23 points ahead of his more illustrious team-mate. Another indication to buoy Russell came in yesterday’s afternoon practice, when he and Hamilton were second and third fastest, respectively one-tenth and two-tenths back from Leclerc. Mercedes came here with several upgrades to address the lack of pace that has left them a distant third best to the Ferraris and Red Bulls. A lot hinges on how they perform here in front of 110,000 fans at the Circuit de Catalunya tomorrow, with team principal Toto Wolff suggesting that they might ditch their no-sidepod design and move to a different concept altogether. Hamilton, 68 points off Leclerc, was upbeat after stepping out of his car yesterday evening. ‘It is positive,’ he said. ‘I am super happy with the progress so a big thank you to everybody back at the factory for not giving up and continuing to push. We are not the quickest but we are on our way. ‘It is much nicer than it has been before, so I am grateful for those upgrades. We now need to fine-tune them and try to position the car.’