Mercedes Driver Russell unhappy with Sprint races and would like to see them extended

After the first Sprint race of the 2022 Formula One season, Mercedes driver George Russell gave his thoughts on how races can be improved. Since sprint races were added to the calendar in the 2021 season, many drivers have criticized the format for various reasons.

Although Russell has not always been one of the vocal critics of the format, the Englishman now has his doubts after enduring yet another tough race in what is turning out to be a forgettable season for the German car manufacturers.

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Russell and Mercedes barely made any progress in the Saturday sprint as he finished in the same 11th place in which he started, while Sir Lewis Hamilton finished in 14th place on the grid.

Speaking about the format, Russell suggested that the race be longer for tyre degradation to come into play. Tyre degradation can often affect key race factors such as pit stops and team orders throughout the race, but as sprint races are designed to be quicker it is hard to see the FIA taking Russell's comments with more than a pinch of salt.

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"I'm not a major fan of it, in all honesty, It needs to probably be 50% longer, or just that little bit longer to see the tyres degrading. The drivers maybe need to manage the tyres a bit more, and then you can see a bit more of a difference between cars.

"At the moment, everyone is just going flat out, and there's not a big enough lap time difference to see those overtakes unless you qualify out of position as you saw with some cars," Russell said.

Despite the disappointing start to the season for Mercedes and Sir Lewis Hamilton, in particular, Russell has been a beacon of hope for Toto Wolff and the rest of the Silver Arrows.