George Russell has explained how he is set to benefit from missing Free Practice 1 at the Mexican Grand Prix, and avoid "bad experiences."
Russell is set to hand his W16 over to Frederik Vesti for FP1, one of nine regular drivers set to miss the opening 60 minutes of practice at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
The opening practice session in Mexico is often characterised by dusty track conditions, with the fastest time in 2024's FP1 session a 1:17.998 from Russell himself with the eventual pole time being Carlos Sainz's 1:15.946, an improvement of nearly two seconds.
Detailing the benefit he expected, Russell explained how those drivers set to miss FP1 would not have the "bad experiences" of the track at its worst when they resume driving duties in the second session.
"I think there is an argument to say you probably gain, to be honest," Russell told media, including RacingNews365.
"Because the track is so offset in lap-time, it is quite dirty and dusty, and lap-times are maybe four seconds off at the end of FP1 compared to qualifying.
"Sometimes when you go with an open mind to FP2, you don't have those bad experiences of the FP1 session, so of all the tracks, this is the one where you lose by far the least.
"Hence why every car, except one, has an FP1 driver."
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