The Russell traits that will ease his adaption to becoming Mercedes team leader

“Without doubt.”

George Russell is unequivocal the performance
that earned his 2024 Belgian Grand Prix ‘victory’ was one of his best ever in Formula 1. He might have lost his stunning on-the-road victory at
Spa-Francorchamps over his car/driver weight total being found to be 1.5kg under the limit post-race, but it was nevertheless a statement drive.       

Russell had ended up in a winning position that day because he’d understood and then committed to a surprise one-stop strategy that his Mercedes squad had previously discounted. Ultimately, that ended up being part of his disqualification too, since his second-stint tyres wore and lost plenty of mass, likely accounting for much of that missing 1.5kg. But Russell’s decisiveness had been key and it ended with long-time race-leader Lewis Hamilton defeated and initially dejected.

Hamilton is now a five-time winner at the Belgian GP and while some may say this was payback of sorts for his lost 2008 Spa win,
it remains a shock to the system that Max Verstappen lost a three-year winning streak at his other ‘home’ track to Mercedes in 2024. While there were elements of fortune in this result  (Verstappen’s engine-change grid penalty meaning he dropped down from pole in Spa), the fallen
giant is back on its feet after two barren seasons
in the ground-effect era.

Russell took pole at Montreal and Silverstone, won in Austria after Verstappen and Lando Norris collided, and Hamilton took that emotion-soaked victory in the British GP. Again, fortune slices its way through these results for the Silver Arrows squad, but these successes banished the memories of Mercedes’ third successive underwhelming start to a campaign.

The team highlighted a different problem at seemingly every race through the early rounds headed into the summer break having won three from four. Even at Zandvoort, where tyre-degradation issues led to an underwhelming result, it showed flashes of pack-heading pace.

Russell's 'victory' in the Belgian GP has been expunged from the record books, but was revealing of his best qualities

Photo by: Erik Junius

Step it up

Hamilton’s Silverstone win drew inevitable questions regarding possible regrets about his upcoming Ferrari move. Even less surprising was how he returned serve so swiftly with rejecting answers. Although the team that really forged Hamiltons’s F1 legend is winning regularly again, there’s just no stopping that blockbuster
move. Therefore, is Russell ready to step up
and lead Mercedes?

Since being promoted from Williams to race alongside Hamilton in 2022, Russell has always insisted it’s a privilege to learn from statistically F1’s greatest driver. To be the best, one must beat the best. But in his now-confirmed 2025 team-mate – Formula 2 racer and Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who appeared for the first time in official F1 action when he drove in FP1 at Monza – Russell will have different circumstances to master.

In promoting Antonelli, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is breaking with a long stretch of team history. Not since Karl Kling’s debut in 1954 has Mercedes run a rookie driver in one of its cars (although the BAR iteration of its current squad gave first F1 outings to Ricardo Zonta and Anthony Davidson in 1999 and 2005 respectively). Inevitably, there will be spills alongside the expected thrills – something a recovering team can ill afford if, as is hoped, the performance convergence from 2024 translates into
a multi-team title battle next year.

Although it will be forever missing from F1’s history books, Russell’s Spa drive was nevertheless revealing as he prepares for the leadership mantle to move at Mercedes in 2025

It was striking how Russell followed up his Spa heartbreak with magnanimity regarding the disqualification. Leader-like, you
might say.

“I’d been pushing the team for a long time to keep pushing the boundaries,” he said as F1 reconvened from its 2024 summer break at Zandvoort. “If you take margin in everything you do, you’d never be disqualified. You’d never make a mistake while driving. You’d never spin-off. But you’d never know what the true potential is.

“I’ve kept my helmet and it’s going to be going on my bedside table with my other two victories. Those celebrations I had with the team in that moment straight after were some of the best feelings of my career. So, I’ll only take positives from what happened.

“I knew before the race I was a little bit light, but it was too late to make a substantial change without eating a steak or something! Which
was probably not the best pre-race routine...


Russell responded in magnanimous fashion to the disappointment of losing his victory at Spa

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

“But there are things that now with the benefit
of hindsight, we can do better and we will be doing better moving forward. And, as always,
you need to make a mistake first until you recognise there’s a problem.”

A wise approach from Russell – highlighting his own contribution to what was a collective failing. After all, as well as the worn-tyre weight, Mercedes lost additional mass from Russell’s underfloor plank rubbing more than it was expecting on the Eau Rouge compression;
this and his lower weight combined to bring the package under the limit.

Critical mass

But Russell certainly isn’t afraid to criticise Mercedes when he feels it’s necessary. That was an approach that had stood out in his junior career too and is perhaps best summed up in the debrief tongue-lashing he gave Williams at Silverstone in 2020, immortalised in Netflix’s Drive to Survive. A more recent example came at the Hungarian GP in July, where Russell was knocked out in Q1.

“Sorry about this session guys – it’s on me,” he said on returning to Mercedes’ garage. But when he faced the media a few minutes later, he was lambasting his squad for its fuel strategy meaning he wasn’t running at the session’s end when the track was quickest.

“You can never take your eye off the ball,” Russell fumed. “We need to have a proper sit-down as a team to understand what’s going on.”

But, although it will be forever missing from F1’s history books, Russell’s Spa drive was nevertheless revealing as he prepares for the leadership mantle to move at Mercedes in 2025.

From realising how fresh his tyres still remained even after half of the 34 tours they’d eventually do, and with the confidence he had in convincing Mercedes the one-stop was on (something the canny Fernando Alonso also realised in the chasing pack, resulting in a big gain for Aston Martin) Russell forced it to work. It all showed his self-assurance perfectly.

This combines with his impressive start to 2024, where Russell led Hamilton 10-2 in qualifying up to the British GP, building
a 26-point standings lead before he retired
with a water leak from their home race, which Hamilton went on to win.

Could Russell have gone on to win at Silverstone, instead of Hamilton, without the water leak that put him out?

Photo by: Erik Junius

Russell was benefitting from a mindset “sweetspot” he was reaching before each time he climbed into his W15, which meant he was in the position to capitalise in Austria. But in this third successive time Mercedes has faced disappointment in a season’s early rounds, Hamilton noticeably struggled.

That he has raised his game considerably since Mercedes fettled the W15 into victory contention demonstrates an age-old F1 problem of proven champions struggling to hit previous heights when they know the big prizes are out of reach… only to rediscover their old form as soon as they get a sniff of the biggest silverware.

Mercedes also offers its own theories on Hamilton’s struggles. That he’s “struggled with this whole generation of car, really, not suiting his style”, per team trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin. The deficit comes mainly in qualifying, where braking stability and the confidence he derives from this has always been one of Hamilton’s greatest strengths. This has often been absent for Mercedes with the
new ground-effect cars.

"I could drive one tenth off the pace for 70 laps in a row and I wouldn’t make a single mistake. [Before] I wasn’t pushing myself the way I’m pushing myself now" George Russell

Since Silverstone, Russell’s form has plateaued – and following the Singapore GP Hamilton leads by 19 in the drivers’ standings, as the points cost of his home DNF and Spa DQ bit Russell. But he’d had still been Mercedes’ lead driver at Zandvoort – a race that highlighted how any slip on car setup or tyre preparation means even the much-improved W15 can end up an also-ran – and also outscored Hamilton in Baku and Singapore.

Temper tempering

Russell’s temperament in converting half-chances into the best results has also been questioned this term. His Spa strategy change was bold, but he had everything in his own hands to make it work.

His offs and a clash with Oscar Piastri in the wet-dry Canada race he had led well from pole highlighted again those in-battle errors which have peppered his F1 career. Think crashing with Valtteri Bottas at Imola in 2021 or hitting the wall on the last lap in Singapore last year. Immediately after Canada, some members of the F1 commentariat were loudly questioning: does Russell make too many mistakes in key moments when the pressure is on?

GP Racing was able to ask Russell directly at the very next race in Spain. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly and what followed was the very definition of setting the record straight.

Russell has given his new team-mate, who is highly rated by team boss Wolff, a public vote of confidence

Photo by: Mercedes AMG

“I could drive one tenth off the pace for 70 laps in a row and I wouldn’t make a single mistake,” he replied. “[Before] I wasn’t pushing myself the way I’m pushing myself now.

“So yeah, mistakes happen. It’s life. We’ve all been through times where these mistakes happen, but they happen as I’m pushing myself above and beyond, and I think I’m in that position as I’m driving better than ever.”

Russell’s straight-talking attitude is long established. It hardly seems like any time has passed since he was the ‘old-head-on-young-shoulders’ rising star of the Mercedes junior programme. While the Silver Arrows’ team leader mantle is about to move, Antonelli has shifted into Russell’s previous up-and-comer placing.

Russell has deployed another wise strategy on this – talking up his expected new team-mate. An extra consideration around this is Wolff’s close bond with Antonelli and his family.

“Kimi’s an exceptional driver, such an amazing track record,” Russell says of Antonelli – more careful not to confirm the expected promotion plan at Zandvoort than Wolff was in a group interview with Dutch media at that race, where he essentially confirmed Antonelli’s place in Mercedes’ 2025 line-up.

“I see him every time he’s racing F2. We always keep a close eye on how he’s getting on, watching all of the races. We did a test together in Silverstone a couple of months ago, so that was a great opportunity for him to get behind
the wheel of an F1 car. He was exceptionally
fast, so I’m sure if he were to get a drive in F1, he’d do a great job.”

For Russell, going up against Antonelli is a straightforward if complex task: beat the newcomer and cement Mercedes team leader status. Harder will be treading that path against the backdrop of Wolff’s closeness with Antonelli and continued public courting of Verstappen.

Three into two won’t work if Verstappen still wants out of Red Bull before his contract ends in 2028, and the word in the paddock is that Mercedes’ engine project for the new formula coming in 2026 is in great shape. For Russell, then, more Spas must be the aim – but this time he must retain the trophies and ideally fight for the world title in 2025 too.

Can Russell continue his strong form in 2025 and turn it into a title challenge as Mercedes team leader?

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Why a key W15 issue proved surprisingly easy to solve

“How could we have been so dumb?” 

Maybe it was the thought of missing out on constructors’ championship bonus payments that prompted a delightful moment in a recent episode of F1’s official podcast. Mercedes technical director James Allison revealed the ‘glass half full’ nature of a crack Formula 1 team finally reaching a crucial understanding of how to make its car significantly better.

There can be no doubt: Mercedes has finally made a big breakthrough in F1’s new ground-effect era. Sure, its pre-summer-break wins came with unwitting assistance from other teams, but Mercedes was in position to capitalise thanks to its work on improving a W15 car which has always been fast in certain conditions, but not (at the start of the season) across all types of corners. Early on it had been frustratingly difficult to achieve a setup which would give good performance in slow and fast corners rather than one or the other.

Allison dismissed talk of a “eureka” moment in development, insisting that the path had always been there – it had just taken too long to recognise

The performance uptick came post-Monaco, where Mercedes had introduced a front wing upgrade. This was credited with improving car handling overall by keeping the aerodynamic balance reliable for the drivers.

Later, a bulge in the W15’s nose suggested a front-suspension damper development; the team coyly insists it’s actually related to cooling. Allison dismissed talk of a “eureka” moment in development, insisting that the path had always been there – it had just taken too long to recognise.

“It just means that the driver can trust both the front and rear axle in a fast corner and a slow corner,” Allison adds. “And can trust it
from when he hits the brakes at the beginning of the corner, all the way through the apex
and out the other side.”

Mercedes believes it has made progress, but there is always more to be done

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images