How Russell left Mercedes with little real choice over his F1 promotion

“Brave, but sensible. Quick, calm – just a really good, professional, brilliant lap.”

That’s how Williams’ head of vehicle performance, Dave Robson, summed up George Russell’s sensational lap to qualify second for the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix. Russell’s against-the-clock, wet-weather heroics would of course go to seal his first F1 career podium in the controversial abandoned race that followed.

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But it was an important moment in a young, burgeoning superstar driver’s career. And Robson’s words are worth listening to. Not only is he an eloquent and helpful engineer, he worked alongside two of F1’s established superstars – as Jenson Button’s race engineer at McLaren from 2010-2014, after previously working his way up in the previous decade and therefore covering Lewis Hamilton’s formative years with the squad. So, it’s particularly interesting that he says Russell is also someone worth listening to.

Robson’s words succinctly describe what the all-conquering Mercedes team is going to be getting full-time from 2022. The Black Arrows squad has already had a taste of Russell’s talent, now it’s going to get it at every course.

Russell has been a Mercedes junior since 2017 – the then 18-year-old having already impressed Toto Wolff, the manufacturer’s motorsport boss, with his professionalism and determination in a meeting a few years earlier. Pole for the 2016 Macau GP was also pivotal in convincing Wolff of his potential.

Mercedes backing, the announcement of which was delayed by several weeks because Nico Rosberg’s shock retirement announcement, led to a switch from somewhat stalling momentum in European Formula 3 to successive rookie championship victories in GP3 and Formula 2. Both, of course, on the F1 support bill running the delicate Pirelli tyres.

George Russell (GBR, ART Grand Prix), ahead of Nirei Fukuzumi (JPN, ART Grand Prix)

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

In the former, Russell emerged as the dominant driver in an ART Grand Prix team packed with talent alongside Jack Aitken, Nirei Fukuzumi and the late Anthoine Hubert. After initially struggling to adapt to the GP3 car’s hand clutch, Russell surged ahead in the mid-season before being held back by the frustrations of reliability issues in a one-make championship (plus a collision with Aitken in the second Hungarian event). But he stamped his authority on the title race with a pair of bold passes on Aitken at Jerez, the season’s penultimate round, and came away in an unbeatable position.

As he progressed through the junior categories, Russell was forming a reputation as a driver who demanded a lot of himself and those around him. But he was always polite and engaging – capable of charming team insiders, fans, the media, and his Mercedes handlers with his mature head on young shoulders.

The surprise and slight alarm on his face when a lengthy list of handwritten questions regarding his 2017 progress was laid, upside down, before him at a table in the F2/GP3 catering awning on the Friday night of that triumphant Jerez weekend demonstrated his likeable honesty.

The answers he provided proved his confidence – further evidence coming from flagging down a journalist lost in their own world mooching around the airport departure lounge and delightfully ribbing them for such a lack of self-awareness as he waited to board a Ryanair flight home along with friend and soon-to-be F2 title rival Alex Albon.

"He’s exceptionally good. What makes him like that? I mean there is just an immense amount of natural talent to drive the car – all that kind of stuff you can’t teach and really can’t describe" Dave Robson

Russell’s first time sampling F1 machinery came just under two years before he first drove a Mercedes grand prix car – his prize for winning what was then called the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award in October 2015, where he impressed McLaren's demonstration team with his feedback on the pointy handling of Jenson Button’s 2011 Canadian Grand Prix-winning McLaren MP4-26.

At the Hungaroring in August 2017, Mercedes was left feeling satisfied by Russell’s reliable feedback in addition to his pace – as he broke the track’s unofficial lap record. After making achieving fitness to complete the test one of his 2017 goals and then ticking that box, F1 weekend practice outings with Force India followed.

The next year he matched Ferrari up-and-comer Charles Leclerc in becoming a rookie F2 champion – the only drivers to do so in the 11 seasons that have followed Nico Hulkenberg’s GP2 success in 2009. In doing so he beat McLaren junior Lando Norris, and soon-to-be reunited Red Bull racer Albon.

All three would be on the F1 grid the following year. Russell’s F2 title was rewarded by Wolff, based on that result and the feedback from Mercedes’ driver development advisor Gwen Lagrue (who had guided Russell’s progress since 2016), with a seat with Mercedes engine customer squad Williams for 2019.

George Russell, Williams Racing FW42

Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

The team was still in the nadir of its dramatic slide down the F1 pecking order at this stage, with Russell’s first season getting off to a terrible start when the FW42 was not ready for the start of winter testing. That foreshadowed what was to come: a year spent racing team-mate Robert Kubica at the back of the pack.

But Russell still stood out. He was never headed by Kubica in qualifying, where he began to show a knack for ‘overdelivering’ against the clock. This is something of misnomer. The Williams was, and still essentially is, much more competitive on new tyres with low fuel, where an exceptional talent can take it closer to its natural performance ceiling. In race settings and with high fuel – combined with Russell’s relative inexperience, especially with the impact of dirty air running in the pack and how that took away downforce at key moments – it’s little wonder the results were not as good as on Saturdays.

Williams’ lack of pace in 2019 also took the pressure off somewhat, with the spotlight rather removed. But team insiders also speak of the galvanising and educational nature of such tough circumstances. And Williams is now hoping that if it can continue its upward trend with the upcoming rules revolution, that accumulated toughness will make up for a lack of experience grappling with the different pressures that bear down for frontrunning squads.

The lack of results didn’t suppress Russell’s demanding nature. Episode nine of the first season of ‘Drive to Survive’ features the rookie delivering pretty blunt feedback to his engineers. It’s fascinating watching when it comes to understanding what Russell is doing in his career – what he learned from Mercedes and the serially-winning mindset the best possess in their leaders (or in Russell’s case, aspires to have). Robson concludes with scene-stealing self-deprecation in response to his driver’s cutting words.

But Williams isn’t complaining. With Russell, the team was able to grab positive results and headlines while working hard to have its long-in-progress rebuild bear fruit. Nowhere can that be better seen than its reaction to his Spa front row and eventual podium.

“In my opinion he’s exceptionally good,” says Robson. “Like, really very good. What makes him like that? I mean there is just an immense amount of natural talent to drive the car – all that kind of stuff you can’t teach and really can’t describe. That’s absolutely all there.

“I think over the couple of years he’s been with us he’s obviously learned an enormous amount as well and I think as I’ve said a couple of times over the last year, or couple of years, hopefully when he looks back having been extremely successful he’ll realise just how much he did learn from what has been a difficult couple of years.

George Russell, Williams FW43

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“But also, he’s just got a really good personality. He’s easy to work with. He’s determined and demanding – as he should be and needs to be. But with that, he’s very sensible and calm and I think that played a big part.”

A slip off the road in the wet 2019 German GP cost Russell his first F1 point, something he’s only recently put right. His second year featured several chances to score as his development continued – but a poor third start at Mugello and the safety car crash at Imola were costly. He was also undone early in the inaugural Styrian GP by the unsettled feeling of his car when racing in the pack – something he’d not been able to do in 2019 given Williams’ massive gap its rivals ahead. But he’s still yet to be outqualified by a Williams team-mate.

Starts are still occasionally a problem – although it’s become less of an issue of late. And pushing too hard in Q2 last time out at Zandvoort led to a crash. Plus, there’s perhaps a touch of impetuousness still to be fully controlled – best seen in that crash with Valtteri Bottas at Imola earlier this year.

That led to public dressing down by Wolff, but the fact remained that Russell had brought F1’s eighth fastest car into the points in tricky conditions, while Bottas was about to be lapped by Hamilton approaching the halfway point of that race. Hamilton had also put Mercedes on pole – an unfancied result for a change (at that stage, before Red Bull’s place as 2021’s pacesetter was firmly established) – with Bottas qualifying down in eighth and struggling badly with tyre warm-up.

As fast and hassle-free as Bottas has been alongside Hamilton, he’s not shown he can reach the ultimate level required to win a title

Russell’s battle with Fernando Alonso in the Austrian GP was a handy foil to suggestions he may be lacking in wheel-to-wheel combat, as his stout defence against one of motorsport’s fiercest competitors so nearly held to the flag. There’s also a growing confidence from Williams regarding his tyre management skills – something that has always undone Bottas against Hamilton, as it’s an area where the world champion reigns supreme.

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Three races after Imola, Autosport interviewed Russell alongside the harbour in Monaco. Given what had so recently happened in a season where many were already expecting Mercedes to make a decision over whether or not he would be promoted from Williams, given he is in the final year of the initial three-season deal all parties agreed to ahead of 2019, he appeared very relaxed. Perhaps even more confident that we’d ever seen before.

Rumours suggesting Wolff would finally alter his works squad’s line-up after five years since Rosberg’s abrupt departure intensified over the summer just gone. But if Russell’s cool demeanour was simply covering up his excitement and potential nerves about what was playing out behind the scenes – with talk of deals being done “by the summer” turning to “over the summer” as the months wore on, it worked a treat.

George Russell, Williams

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Even before Spa he’d recorded two further Q3 appearances – his Friday evening runs at Silverstone a particular highlight. Then in Hungary he and Nicholas Latifi finally capitalised on a chaotic race to score Williams’ first double points finish since the 2018 Italian GP. No wonder there were tears in the paddock afterwards.

It’s been quite a journey – all combining into firm evidence that Russell is a topline F1 driver. He had done what Mercedes wanted time and time again.

Whether that was “showing people on paper that I’ve got it, rather than just telling people ‘I have it’ in GP3, being “there to win the championship” in F2 or simply “doing my talking on the track” with Williams last year, Russell ultimately delivered.

Wolff is a very successful businessperson – one who also deeply cares for the health and longevity of the squad he helms at Brackley (including the Formula E operation he now needs to find a way to keep alive). That means futureproofing is a key consideration, as Hamilton is not going to be around together, or even necessarily able to maintain his exceptional standards.

Wolff needed to see if Russell could be that future and the Briton showed it. As fast and hassle-free as Bottas has been alongside Hamilton and in particular comparison to Rosberg, he’s not shown he can reach the ultimate level required to win a championship in five attempts. Plus, his nine extra years on Russell work against him in the type of calculations Mercedes has been making.

The pair’s one-off race as team-mates will now sum up why Mercedes has made the call it has.

At the 2020 Sakhir GP, Bottas entered the weekend in a situation he couldn’t really win. But with a poor start and subsequent misfortune while trailing the equally unlucky Russell, he still lost. Russell, despite losing a race he twice put himself in a position to win, ultimately still won given the reputation boost he earned.

Russell didn’t become an F1 race winner that day, but he should’ve – in what was an amazing one-time shot to show what he could do with competitive machinery at the front of the grid with the full glare of the F1 spotlight upon him. He showed exactly what Mercedes wanted and demonstrated why it couldn’t ignore his star quality.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W11, Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes F1 W11

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images