Russell reveals racing rules change after Verstappen Norris clash

George Russell has revealed F1 drivers have become aligned on racing rules following a meeting in Qatar.

The drivers met ahead of the penultimate round of the campaign after raising concerns over specific manoeuvres earlier this year.

Max Verstappen went unpunished for forcing Lando Norris wide in the USA as they battled for position.

However, the Dutchman was handed a duo of 10-second time penalties in Mexico for forcing the McLaren driver wide twice in four corners.

Russell reflected positively on the meeting and stated an alteration will be made to the rule book going forward.

“I don’t think it’s rocket science,” Russell told media including RacingNews365. “I think we all feel the same way. If you’re overtaking on the inside, you make the corner and you’re not running off, it’s your corner.

“You want to see hard racing. You want to see drivers battling wheel to wheel. It looks awesome when people are going through the gravel and sparks are being flown up.

“I think the stewards recognise that. If you’re on the outside being overtaken, it’s on you to yield.

“Right now there is a line in the regulations that says the inside driver needs to leave room to the guy on the outside from the apex to the exit. That’s going to be getting binned off, and I hope it’s going to be from this weekend onwards.”

Russell added if it is clear the overtaking driver on the inside will make the corner, it is up to the driver on the outside to yield.

“A lot of drivers are in line that if you are the overtaking car on the inside, rule number one is you have to be able to stay on the circuit,” he said.

“If you’re able to stay on the circuit, you are in your right to run the driver wide as it has been for all of us since go-karting.

“If you’re overtaking somebody on the inside, you’ve got the right to run them wide.”

However, the crux of the issue, according to the Mercedes driver, is the track layouts and the lack of deterrents beyond the white lines.

“We also concluded that most of these issues are down to the circuits,” he said.

“We spoke about a number of the issues in Austin, I think a lot of overtakes wouldn’t have even been attempted had there been gravel there, such as Austria Turn 4.

“You’re going to go the gravel if you go one or two per cent over the limit.

“The circuits are the root cause and the guidelines are like an interim fix that we need to agree on until we can get all of the circuits in a proper manner.”