Ruth Buscombe admits giving ‘phenomenal’ F1 driver nightmares with her race strategies

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A Formula 1 driver requires an unbelievable amount of talent to reach the pinnacle of motorsport, but the efforts of hundreds – something thousands of people – determine how successful they are race-to-race.

Strategy plays an important role throughout an entire race weekend with millions of simulations utilised by each team to make sure they know exactly what to do in every scenario.

Ruth Buscombe has previously worked for Ferrari, Haas and Sauber during her time in Formula 1 and was speaking on the Drive to Wynn Podcast about her experiences.

Every Grand Prix is different with thousands of potential adjustments to be made on each car as well as tyre and fuel strategies to consider.

Each driver is also unique and drives in a very different way from their rivals, meaning individual plans have to be created for every possible battle.

During her time working as a strategist, Buscombe admits having plenty of battles with Mercedes driver George Russell.

Russell started life in F1 with Williams when they were right at the back of the grid.

One of his teammates Robert Kubica admitted he made a mistake coming back to race for Williams because of how bad the car was.

Buscombe has admitted that although she and Russell are now good friends, he used to have nightmares about her strategies ruining his races.

Ruth Buscombe gave George Russell nightmares with her F1 race strategies

Talking about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the drivers on the grid, Buscombe said: “I’m only friends with George Russell because I raced against him for three years and I spent a weird number of nights dreaming about him before the race.

“I’d kind of wake up at like three AM in the morning and be like, oh no, he’s going to do this and he’s going to do that.

READ MORE: Mercedes driver George Russell’s life outside F1 from net worth to height

“And then it was chatting to him and he’s like, God, I have all these nightmares about, like, I was just finally about to score a point and then you plonk a car in front of me.

“And you actually become friends with people because you’re consistently racing against him.

“He was phenomenal at putting that Williams car that he was racing at the time in qualifying positions that he had absolutely no right putting in, like his one-lap pace was absolutely stunning.

“So like, I’d have to come up with all these schemes to be able to try and like block the car by doing all this kind of thing.”

George Russell still having nightmares about strategy calls at Mercedes

Russell’s career up to the point of reaching Formula 1 was exceptional and is among a handful of drivers to have won Formula 3 and Formula 2 in his rookie seasons.

After being picked up by Mercedes, team principal Toto Wolff placed him at Williams to continue his development.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Mercedes AMG F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Wolff has since admitted leaving Russell at Williams for too long as the car simply wasn’t competitive during his three seasons with the team.

He only scored his first Formula 1 point during a one-off outing with Mercedes when Lewis Hamilton was ill but even then, the team’s mistakes on the pit wall arguably cost him a race win.

Russell offered to sacrifice himself at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix to help teammate Nicholas Latifi maximise his points scoring that day and they came home 7^th and 8^th.

Before that day, Russell took part in 47 consecutive races for Williams without scoring a point, much to his frustration and the expertise of people like Buscombe on rival pit walls, although he did earn a remarkable podium at the following race at Spa after torrential rain forced the race to be red flagged.

Mercedes haven’t always made the right calls on Russell’s races either and he was denied a win at Spa this year after his car was deemed to be underweight by the FIA.

It’s something the Brit will hope doesn’t continue to follow him around throughout his career.