| Nationality | British |
| Date of birth | 15 February, 1998 |
| Place of birth | Kings Lynn, Norfolk, Great Britain |
| Age | 26 |
| Height | 185 cm |
| Weight | 70 kg |
| F1 career | 2019 – |
| Best classification | 4th (2022) |
| Races started | 104 |
| Wins | 1 |
| Podium places | 11 |
| Pole positions | 1 |
| Front row | 9 |
| Fastest laps | 6 |
| Points | 469 |
| Races led | 6 |
| Official website | https://www.georgerussellracing.com/ |
Biography
At the age of 14, George Russell won his first karting title in 2012, winning the CIK-FIA Euro KF3 with three wins and 75 points championship and two years later he won the British Formula 4 championship with five wins and 11 podiums in 24 races.
In the same year, Russell as the new hope of British motorsport wins the prestigious McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award and in 2015 he finishes sixth in the European F3 Championship with Carlin.
Russell continued to drive in the same championship in 2016, but for Hitech GP team. He finished third with three wins and 10 podiums in 30 races. Next year he will move to the GP3 series, where he will become the champion with three wins and seven podiums in his debut season and in the same year he became a member of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Young Driver Programme.
In 2017, Russell tested the F2 car, but more importantly, he also tested the F1 cars Force of India and Mercedes. With Mercedes he had two test days at Hungaroring (a total of 916 km) and for Force India he performed on the first two free practice sessions in Abu Dhabi and Brazil.
All this was more than enough for Russell to secure F2 seat in 2018 in the ART Grand Prix team, and although Lando Norris had better start, Russell had overtaken him during the year and won the title with seven wins, 11 podiums, five pole positions and five fastest laps.
In 2018, Russell continued to test F1 cars of Mercedes and their customers Williams and Force India with a total of five test days and 1834 kilometers behind the wheel.
Russell’s speed, maturity, consistency, ability to learn and progress convinced Williams to sign him for the 2019 F1 season before confirming Robert Kubica and the young Briton was present on numerous F1 races in the 2018 season in which he learned from the world champion team and of multiple world champion Lewis Hamilton whose work habits and communication he followed closely.
For all these reasons, Russell is one of the most exciting debutants that Formula 1 has seen lately, but his job is hampered by the fact that he will drive for Williams, who finished the last in the constructors’ championship in 2018.
But Charles Leclerc began his debut season in the uncompetitive Sauber but still managed to showcase all his talent and secure a place in Ferrari for F1 2019. But first, and very important task for Russell will be beating Kubica who worked incredibly hard to get back to Formula 1 racing seat for the first time since 2010.
Russell outclassed Kubica in the qualifying 21-0 and 17-3 in the races (one race they both retired) and he delighted with his dedication and willingness to learn.
But the only Williams point in 2019 was won by Robert Kubica at the German GP in changing weather conditions in which Kubica and Russell were classified as 11th and 12th after penalties for both Alfa Romeo drivers.
The Williams FW43 was the slowest car in 2019, but Russell only started from the last row eight times in 21 races.
Russell had the peak of the season in qualifying speed in Hungary (he started 15th), Belgium (14th) and Italy (14th), and his best placements are 11th place from Germany and 12th place from Brazil.
Russell got a new teammate, Nicholas Latifi, in 2020, and the car was somewhat more competitive, thanks in part to a drop in Ferrari engine power that slowed down their closest rivals Haas and Alfa Romeo.
Williams was still the slowest car, but he narrowed the gap behind Haas and Alfa and Russell often struggled to make it to Q2, unlike Latifi who made just one Q2 finish in Hungary where he started 15th.
Russell was on average more than half a second faster than Latifi and eight times started in the top 15 in 16 races (not counting the Sakhir GP when he was driving for Mercedes). His best Williams qualifying result was in the second race in Austria when he set 12th fastest time in the wet.
The best race result of the season for Williams Russell achieved in a chaotic race for the Grand Prix of Tuscany, which had several interruptions – he finished in 11th place, 2.4 seconds behind Vettel in Ferrari.
The highlight of Russell’s season is certainly the unplanned Mercedes call ahead of the Sakhir GP to replace Hamilton who contracted the coronavirus, and Russell took full advantage of the opportunity to show his skills.
Although Hamilton’s Mercedes was too small for him (Russell is 11 cm taller than Hamilton), he managed to qualify for second place, just 0.026 seconds behind the fastest Bottas, while he delighted in the race by taking the lead at the start and safely controlling the race.
Unfortunately for Russell, Mercedes made a mistake when changing the tyres, so both drivers lost a lot of time, and although he overtook Bottas after losing the lead, Russell later had a puncture so he had to pit again. He eventually finished ninth and scored the first three points in his F1 career, two for ninth place and one for the fastest lap, first in his F1 career.
He finished the season in 18th place with three points, which is his best placement in Formula 1, while Williams will keep the same driver lineup in 2021 as in 2020.
Russell took advantage of the much more competitive Williams in 2021 and often made it into Q2 and occasionally into Q3 such as Austria where he qualified eighth and finished 11th in the race after a big battle with Alonso.
For the first points in Williams, in the third season in the team, Russell had to wait until the 11th race of the championship in Hungary, where in a chaotic start several drivers badly damaged their cars, and Latifi and Russell stayed out of trouble and brought even ten points to Williams, more than in the last three seasons together (0+1+7).
Unbelievably, already at the next race in Belgium, the Williams drivers won ten points again, but the main work was done in qualifying in the rain, in which Russell was the second fastest behind Verstappen, while Latifi was tenth, because the race in the true sense of the word was not even held.
Russell won points twice more, in Monza and Sochi, and in the qualifiers he was outstanding again with a convincing 20:2 against Latifi, and Mercedes confirmed what had been talked about for a long time, namely that Russell will drive for Mercedes from 2022 with Hamilton.
After three great seasons at Williams, Russell’s patience with Mercedes paid off and he will finally get the chance to show what he knows in a car capable of winning and prove himself against seven-time world champion Hamilton.
The new era in Formula 1 in 2022 was fateful for Mercedes as they continued their run from 2014 where they have been fighting for the championship every season so the timing of Russell’s move to Mercedes could not have been worse.
Mercedes’ F1 W13 made its debut at the Barcelona test, but it wasn’t until the second test in Bahrain that it appeared in the sidewall configuration they planned to race with. Instead of a big jump in performance, Mercedes experienced a high level of bounce that plagued them in the first part of the season and prevented them from unlocking the car’s full potential.
During the season, Mercedes developed its F1 W13 well, which was very competitive on certain tracks, and its greatest strength was keeping the Pirelli tires well while it worked best on tracks with as few bumps as possible and as many turns as possible.
Russell opened the season brilliantly despite an uncompetitive car and finished in the top five in the first nine races, but that streak was interrupted by a crash at the start of the British GP in which several drivers, including Russell, retired – it was one of only two races, along with Singapore, where Russell was not among the points winners.
Mercedes’ only pole position was achieved by Russell in Hungary, and Russell also brought the team the only victory of the season when he won both the sprint and the main race in Sao Paolo, finishing ahead of teammate Hamilton.
Hamilton struggled more with the unpredictable F1 W13 at the beginning of the season than Russell, but in the second part of the season he was better, although he did not achieve either pole position or victory, and in the qualifications he was more successful than his younger colleague 13:9.
But Russell, thanks to his more consistent performances during the season, finished ahead of Hamilton, which is only Hamilton’s third loss to his teammate in 16 seasons (Button 2011 and Rosberg 2016).
After a great first season in Mercedes, Russell was somewhat disappointing in 2023, primarily due to a large number of mistakes.
The speed in the qualifications was very close to Hamilton’s, as evidenced by the equal ratio (11:11), but in the races Hamilton was much more consistent in delivering results.
Due to his own mistakes, Russell lost several good results such as hitting the wall in Canada and Singapore, and in Las Vegas he misjudged the duel with Verstappen and fell out of the fight for the podium.
The young Brit attributed this to wanting to be better than his team-mate and admits that sometimes he may have pushed too hard, and says that the 2023 season, which he finished in eighth place, is probably his worst since arriving in Formula 1 with Williams in 2019.
Russell is determined to strike back in 2023 and establish himself as the team’s leader in his final season with Hamilton, and no matter who Mercedes bring in as his replacement in 2025, Russell will be the favorite and the new leading driver for the Mercedes team.
