The FIA is currently investigating the incident, which happened after Fernando Alonso surprised Russell by braking earlier than expected at turn six. Alonso was penalized for this after the race, and this decision divided the Formula 1 drivers during the Japanese race weekend.
According to Motorsport.com, Formula 1 is considering several options to modify the corner before they return to Albert Park next year, after several drivers want to see it done after the latest accident.
Before Russell’s accident, there were already concerns about the safety of the corner last year, when the first of the three red flags waved in the race came due to Albon’s accident here. This year, there were two big crashes at the same place, first in the first free practice, Albon threw the car into the wall facing the sixth turn, and the other was the Russell-Alonso case.
It was one of the corners changed before the Melbourne event returned to the racing calendar in 2022 post-pandemic, as part of which the right-hander’s ideal curve was widened and significantly speeded up before it morphs into the long acceleration.
After that, however, changes will be considered again, including a slower route, an asphalt crash pad in place of the gravel bed, or the modification of the walls after the corner so that cars that go off the track do not bounce back onto the asphalt.
Already in Melbourne, at the driver’s briefing after the second free practice, the topic was changing the corner, the local driver, Oscar Piastri, revealed that “there was already a discussion about it in Melbourne” two weeks ago.
In Suzuka, he added: “Perhaps there are things we can do to improve the situation a little bit. We’ve seen quite a few accidents where cars bounced back onto the track, this was something we’ve already talked about and should be resolved.”
“Maybe we could change the angle of the wall or maybe the speed of the turn. It was quite clearly a fast turn. We’ve already talked about this with the FIA, we’ll see what happens, but yes, now maybe there have been a little too many accidents where the cars end up on the track for us to do nothing.”
Piastri’s opinion is shared by many of his peers, although Russell says the “corner is great, maybe the best corner on the circuit, so I wouldn’t want it to change.” He added: “I think there are places on every course where the walls are not very well placed and they just push you back onto the course, that’s certainly not good.”
“We don’t want large fallout areas either, we don’t want asphalted fallout areas. I think everything is fine, except for the placement of that wall, it could even be closer to the track, but in line with the track, so that at least we don’t bounce back to the ideal curve.”
Albon also pointed out the extent to which the “two-stage” wheel arch contributed to his accident in free practice: “Especially with these low cars, anything we touch can be a problem, we can use the front part of the wheel arch, but if we run too much, we hit the second part, the ramp , which throws the car. These two things should be managed better.”
Speaking in a group with Russell and Albon at the press conference, Carlos Sainz, who won this year’s race with Ferrari, said: “That corner needs to be reviewed, but I already said that in the last briefing. This is not the first time that after an accident the car bounces back onto the track, in a corner where we go blindly at 250 km/h.”
“I didn’t really like the last couple of accidents in this corner, nor in other categories, I have a bad feeling about them. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great corner, I love going through it in qualifying, but in the race the car comes back on the track too often, in a very narrow section. I think it should be worked on a bit.”