How Williams experience has set George Russell up to challenge for F1 title

It wasn’t much of a secret in recent weeks, was it? Mercedes told George Russell he would be driving for the team in 2022 before the Belgian Grand Prix, and then he had to spend two weeks keeping it to himself.

But while he couldn’t talk about the upcoming move until it was made official on Tuesday, Russell could talk about his current team. In fact, it was notable that the 23-year-old spoke more about Williams in his press release quote announcing his Mercedes drive than he did about Mercedes.

Williams has been a huge education for Russell, from the struggles at the back of the grid that 2019 provided to clinging onto the back of the pack last year and now being able to fight for Q2 and even Q3 on a regular basis. He’s gone from driving in Formula 1 to racing, and with that progression has been able to show his development to Mercedes and the rest of the grid.

“There have been mistakes I’ve learned from — and I’m sure they won’t be my last mistakes either”

“There’s definitely been a lot of lessons along the way,” Russell told me. “There have been mistakes I’ve learned from – which I think is only natural for any young driver coming into a new sport and getting up to speed – and I’m sure they won’t be my last mistakes either. We’re only human, but I feel a more complete driver than I ever have been and I feel like we’ve made incredible progress over these three years.

“Especially last year to this year, in a season where the regulations stay very stable and there’s not a huge amount we could do, it was down to the driver and the engineers to try and find more performance from areas. I think I’ve really improved on the technical front which I think will put me in good stead for the future.

“I’ve definitely improved on the technical side, it’s understanding how to make the car to go quicker and get the car to complement your driving. At the end of the day man and machine have got to work in harmony together and understanding what I need from my team, what I need from the race car to allow me extract these good performances is the real skill.

“It’s something I’ve been so grateful for, and in ways having such a difficult race car – especially in 2019 and 2020 – probably forced me to work even hard on that front.”

Given how tough 2019 was, Russell could be forgiven for feeling a little short-changed after winning the Formula 2 championship in such style but then seeing the drivers he beat – Lando Norris and Alex Albon – in much more competitive machinery. But he drew inspiration from the team around him who were all pushing to improve matters from that low point.

“The team have been on a similar journey to myself where there’s been a lot of difficult moments and it’s been a real test of character to push through psychologically. I think it’s forced us to look at every single area, to see how we can improve.

“If you have a fast race car it’s quite easy to not look at the small details because you think everything is sunshine and glory, but when you do have some very difficult years we’re really made to look at ourselves in the mirror and think ‘Are we doing a good enough job in this area and that area?’.

“Clearly not, clearly we did need to improve, but from a race team perspective their duty is to make the most of the machinery they are given as such, and I think just from a race team perspective we made some really good strides over these years.

“Even back at the factory the correlation and work ethic, especially since Jost came onboard, has been a real boost for everyone.”

While Russell is now looking forward to a spell as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate in what is likely to be a race-winning car at the very least, it’s one of Hamilton’s old rivals who he credits with showing him just what it was going to take to be a more rounded driver.

“Definitely being team-mates with Robert is something I was incredibly fortunate to have. He’s got so much experience, so much technical knowledge, that was a real eye-opener for me being team-mates with Robert and I had to raise my game to be honest.

“I feel like I’ve made huge progress since 2019, I feel like I can come to the track and discuss openly with the engineers about different set-up options and items and what I believe would work in this part of the track or these corners, why we want to go down this direction. This was really benefitted by just seeing how educated Robert was, which really helped me in 2020 and this year when Nicholas [Latifi] came onboard as a rookie.”