'Sensible' George Russell : an F1 leader emerges

F1

George Russell has begun the 2023 F1 season in flying form. But more than that, writes Tony Dodgins, his authority within the series is growing

George Russell waves to the crowd as he arrives at the 2023 Australian GP paddock

Russell arrives at the Albert Park paddock

Clive Mason/F1 via Getty Images

It’s hard to put your finger on it, but there are times when drivers emerge as truly authoritative figures, leaders, rather than simply competitors. Someone like Jody Scheckter morphs from wild child liability into sensible elder statesman. Niki Lauda or, less so, Didier Pironi, become leaders, representatives and mouth pieces. Over the Australian GP weekend, I had that distinct feeling about George Russell.

Up against seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, Russell was in a tricky position in imposing himself without being disrespectful. He’s done it very well so far but, increasingly, is self-assured enough to stand his ground, offer a contradictory view.

How often does anyone outqualify Lewis Hamilton by almost four-tenths and drive a stronger race?

There were signs of needle between the Mercedes pair post-Jeddah, where Russell outqualified and outraced Hamilton. After the race, Lewis implied that George got a bit “lucky” with his different set-up, the benefits of which, Hamilton reckoned, could have gone either way.

When that was put to Russell in Australia, he was quick to shoot it down.

“I don’t think there’s any luck in it at all,” he said. “It’s down to the preparation you put in before the event and the changes we made overnight. I knew that was going to be the right direction with the work we did with the team. And I believed it was going to be better than the set-up that Lewis opted for.” So, there you have it.

George Russell ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP

Luck had nothing to do with performance in Jeddah, says Russell

Mercedes

It no doubt irked Russell that Hamilton undermined what George himself saw as a top-drawer performance.

“I felt like Saudi was one of my strongest weekends I’ve ever had with Mercedes,” George confirmed. “From qualifying, I was really pleased with how that went, then the race felt really strong. And P4 was, I think, the absolute maximum we could have achieved.”

Subtext: how often does anyone outqualify Lewis Hamilton by almost four-tenths and drive a stronger race? Give me a bit of credit!

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Russell was also playing his morale-boosting role to perfection in Australia. While it was understandable that the body language of both Mercedes drivers was flat in Bahrain and Jeddah when the realisation dawned that they were still the better part of a second from the Red Bull pace, it was a different story in Melbourne.

“We’re probably finding more gains in the past two or three weeks than we found over the whole winter by clearly developing in the wrong window,” Russell pointed out before the action commenced. “It’s definitely heading in the right direction but if we manage to get another P4 or fight for the podium here, that will probably be exceeding the potential of the car.”

And then he went and stuck the W14 on the front row, just 0.23sec from Verstappen, made a great start, compromised Verstappen’s first corner so that the Mercs ran 1-2, led confidently, got the safety car call by being ahead of Hamilton on the road, and looked set fair. Sod’s Law then decreed one of those once in a blue moon events, a blown Mercedes engine. It was more than cruel, but he calmly brought it to a stop, was calm, rational, no histrionics and talked of how the team could have won the race, and thanked everyone.

George might not be Hollywood, but who cares? Far better that every time he opens his mouth, something sensible comes out.

2023 Australian GP 2 George Russell Mercedes

Engine failure brought Russell’s Australian GP to an early end

Getty Images

Formula 1 is currently looking at reducing the amount of free practice. Stefano Domenicali would prefer less practice and more on-track sessions that have true significance for fans. The drivers, led by GPDA director Russell are largely supportive.

“I don’t think it’s right that F1 has three times the amount of practice that you have in F3 and F2,” George said in Australia. “They should be the ones to get more practice because they’re doing fewer races and they don’t get to test that often.

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“And, I’d probably say, for the benefit of the 2000-3000 F1 people travelling around the world, have the first session on a Friday afternoon or evening so there’s less pressure for teams to arrive on a Wednesday. If you have your first session on Friday morning, you need to be here on a Thursday which, for a lot of races, requires flying on Wednesday.

“If we push that back to allow teams to fly on a Thursday morning, add that up over 24 races a year and you’re getting almost a month extra at home sleeping in your own bed, which is huge for everybody in this circus.”

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly looked impressed. “No surprises he’s running the GPDA…” Gasly smiled. “I think George has got a great idea. I support that!”

All this, of course, is peripheral fluff if the guy is not getting the job done in the cockpit. But Russell manifestly is. Last year, George and Lewis were unbelievably close in qualifying throughout the entire season, more often than not a couple of hundredths apart. So far, this time around the average has been almost a couple of tenths in George’s favour. Okay, Lewis thinks the cockpit is too far forward, losing him some seat-of-the-pants feel, but outqualifying Hamilton three times in a row in the same car is mighty impressive come what may.

Lewis is Lewis and he’ll fight back, but don’t be surprised to find Mercedes increasingly looking towards Russell for leadership. As well as his great speed, George seems to have all the boxes ticked.

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