George Russell took advantage of F1's current spring break to spend an afternoon at the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters on Tuesday, supporting tennis' world n° 1 Novak Djokovic.
After Djokovic beat Russia's Ivan Gakhov to access the third round of the tournament, the Serbian and the Mercedes driver met up for a courtside chat in which the two stars discussed some of the hardships of their respective sport.
"It was good. It’s a solid start, but it could always be better," Djoko told the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix winner when asked by the latter how his return to action had gone.
"When perfection isn’t on that level, you’re looking to get better, to improve."
As for the Serbian, the 22-time Grand Slam winner queried Russell on his recent travels and where he heads to next.
"We’ve got Azerbaijan, that’s the next one," said Russell. "We just came back from Melbourne. Melbourne’s a killer, it’s probably taken a week to come back.
"We were meant to go to China next week. We’ve actually got a couple weeks off, Azerbaijan, and then the season really kicks off. Then Miami."
Djokovic noted that Formula 1 "does not really keep to the continents", to which Russell replied that "there are a few conversations about this, we're left, right and centre."
Hopefully, F1 boss Stefano Domenicali will have picked up on Djoko's astute observation.
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
When F1’s radically redesigned 2026 cars finally roll out in Barcelona at the end of…
Max Verstappen has never been one to sugar-coat reality – and as Formula 1 braces…
Ferrari have survived decades of criticism about strategy calls, driver politics and pit stops that…
While the paddock has been whispering for months that Mercedes might be holding the winning…
Dan Gurney passed away on this day in 2018, and here at F1i we'll never…
What began as a painful reminder of loss has ended with a moment of profound…