George Russell went from Formula 2 champion to Formula 1 backmarker in 2019 but his performances and attitude marked him out as a future front-runner. Motorsport Week sits down for an in-depth chat with the Mercedes-backed Williams racer.
In 2017, George Russell emulated Charles Leclerc by winning the GP3 Series title as a rookie. In 2018 he repeated Leclerc’s feat by taking the Formula 2 crown first time out. In that championship battle he beat Lando Norris and Alexander Albon, wrapping up proceedings with a round to spare.
In 2019, Leclerc won two races and claimed a grid-best seven pole positions for Ferrari in Formula 1. Albon was drafted in to Red Bull Racing mid-season and was voted FIA Rookie of the Year. Norris scored points in over half of the grands prix and out-qualified Carlos Sainz Jr., taking the fan vote for best rookie. As for Russell? He was condemned to a season of Q1 exits and looking out for blue flags courtesy of Williams’ struggles, finishing a point-less last in the standings.
But the pure statistics and championship classification do not do justice to Russell’s rookie season. The Mercedes-backed protégé impressed with his on-and off-track attitude, endearing himself to Williams amid its struggles, and delivered when he could. There were some stand-out qualifying displays, such as in Spain and Hungary, as he thrashed team-mate Robert Kubica. In race trim, too, starts aside, he was notable, though for a driver accustomed to winning it meant he had to realign his expectations.
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“I needed to accept the fact my goal isn’t a fixed position, it’s just to maximise everything week in week out,” explains Russell, sheltering from the sunshine beating down on Williams’ roof terrace in Abu Dhabi.
“If you’re at Mercedes the goal every weekend is to put it on pole and win the race. If you’re at McLaren the goal is to be best of the rest. If you’re at Haas I’d guess it’s to get into Q3 and have better race pace.
“All of these guys have got set goals, whereas for us the goal is you’re sort of racing against yourself.
“It’s not been the first year I’d dreamt of, but it’s probably a year I’ll look back in the future and say actually it did me no harm and maybe even benefitted me.”
Formula 1 is riding the crest of a youth wave in the current era and F2/GP3 predecessor Leclerc, and F2 rivals Norris and Albon, along with the likes of Max Verstappen, have shown that the kids are alright. Rather than look at his contemporaries with jealousy Russell regards their displays as good news.
“Everybody at Mercedes, and Williams, knows I beat Lando and Alex last year,” says Russell matter-of-factly.
“I’m on the exact same course as Charles, factually, he won GP3, I won GP3, he won F2, I won F2, both in our first seasons, so now that Charles has the most amount of poles, and is winning races, Alex is showing what he’s capable of, Lando is doing a decent job, I’m happy for these guys. I actually want them to do better as the better they do the better it is for me.
“When my time comes and I’m negotiating or whatever, I can say 'well I’ve not really been fully able to show what I can do, but I showed what I did last year and the year before, versus these guys, and they’re clearly showing what they can do'. If they were doing a bad job it probably wouldn’t give the same sort of credit to what I did in F2.”
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Russell has been with Mercedes’ scheme since 2017, and also tested for Force India, but when the opportunity arose to join the grid it came with Williams. The team had started Formula 1’s hybrid era as a front-runner but as the years progressed its concept became less effective, and the overhauled 2017 regulations prompted it to make changes. But the 2018 model was an aerodynamic disaster and Williams slumped to last, exposing inherent weaknesses within the team’s structure and approach. This year Williams’ FW42 was late to pre-season testing and when it did arrive it was substantially off the pace, consigning Russell to a rookie year comfortably at the back of the field. Unlike in 2018, Williams was not even in the ballpark to regularly fight for Q2 and points.
There remained hope, even through the early events, that Williams had such a big improvement potential that it could close towards the midfield, but aspirations – or even mere hope – proved too fanciful.
“We had a big update in Germany and we knew how much that would bring but I guess in the back of your mind you always hope it’ll over-achieve and bring more performance," says Russell. "But when we put that on and realised it sort of hit the targets that’s when you accepted the fact this is going to be like this [for the rest of the year] and [you just have to] get on with it. I saw no reason to throw my toys out of the pram over something I need to change, you just need to make the most of what you’re given and get on with it from there.”
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At the next event, in Hungary, Russell came within a tenth of making Q2 on one of Williams’ best weekends of the year, but thereafter it was back to the grind.
“Hungary was… we overachieved, but only by a little bit,” he accepts. “I think the circuit definitely suited the characteristics of the car, we were very draggy, so the lack of straights in Hungary came into our favour. The stars aligned. Danny Ric and Perez had a scruffy session, everything went our way, it was really great, definitely the best lap of the year for us. But I didn’t go into Spa thinking we can do the same. I was quite realistic. Singapore was probably the only other half opportunity but trying to overachieve again we sort of hurt ourselves more.”
The encouraging aspect for Williams’ season was that the updates it brought to the FW42 yielded the desired effect, proving the correlation was accurate, even if the on-track results remained dismal. It gives Russell confidence that Williams can haul itself back into a respectable position in 2020.
“I’d say success [next year] would be fighting in the midfield,” is Russell’s view on progress. “Realistically that’s the most we could hope for.
“We’re definitely going to make a big step for next year but we obviously don’t know how much everyone else is going to improve.
“I do definitely believe we’re going to be in the fight next year. It definitely won’t be like it was four or five years ago for the team, but we’ll definitely be in a position that we know every weekend we’ve got a chance of Q2.”
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But for a team that has been on a near-constant downward trend for five years why the hope that 2020 – under stable year-on-year regulations – will provide an uplift in performance?
“Well everything for this year was done with a purpose,” says Russell, who makes regular factory visits to Grove from his flat in Oxford.
“The team, with the car, was definitely declining from 2014 all the way to 2018. They understood why. There wasn’t a huge amount of correlation between the track and the wind tunnel and obviously Formula 1 is 95 per cent aero, and when your main aero tool is not working as it should then that’s not ideal.
“I’ve seen all the work we’ve done over the winter [in 2018/19], all these rakes we’ve been running, the team has probably got the most sophisticated rakes in the paddock, and I've [seen] firstly the correlation, and also the trend of improvements we’re seeing in the wind tunnel. Having made this big philosophy change over the latter end of last year, the team took a massive hit in downforce to rebuild all the foundations and it trickled along at that point for some time while they were still rebuilding the foundations, but definitely there’s been some big gains since.
“We’ve only brought one of those major gains to the car this year, which was in Germany, but we do believe we’re further down the line than that.”
Russell getting down to the grind has been matched by the resilience of Williams' team members; in spite of its frequent setbacks and frustrations, their heads never dropped.
“It’s not easy for these guys arriving every week knowing we’re going to be last,” says Russell, full of praise for the crew. “Especially knowing these are the same bunch of guys that were here two or three years ago fighting for podiums every other week or whatever. Testament to the guys here, it’s a great spirit within this team and everyone motivates one another. And likewise, back at the factory. Everyone’s very motivated to get out of this situation and improve.”
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While Williams focuses on improving its own potential there are also areas where Russell is keen to explore and exploit going forward, now that his gruelling rookie season is at an end.
“It’s been eye-opening really,” he muses. “When I was a kid watching TV you just turn on [to Formula 1] on a Saturday and Sunday every other weekend and you don’t really think much of it.
“But by the time you fly home from an event you get back Monday, back at the factory on Tuesday for the simulator, have marketing events here and there, doing your training, other bits as well, random fitness tests, meetings, check-ups here, there and everywhere, before you know it you’re on to the next week, you’re back in the sim to prepare for the next event, you’re packing your bag and away on the Tuesday or Wednesday, it’s relentless really. I’m definitely fine with doing it all, but I think you need to find the right balance.”
A period of down-time towards the end of the season unexpectedly provided another lesson.
“I went on holiday after Austin, I had an event in California and decided to stay out there for a few days with friends – including Alex actually – and came back to the UK feeling good and refreshed. It was quite interesting; when I’m in the gym every other day I do this standard test just to get a baseline, it’s just to measure my heart rate over three minutes and just a standard jump we do, and I set my PB [Personal Best] on both, having just come back from California, where I continued to train, but not to the intensity I would have done had I stayed at home.”
Sometimes, then, less is more, but Russell – who studies the onboards of the leading drivers to see if there’s any techniques he can adopt – will no doubt be hoping for more in 2020.
“Definitely with my own progress I know there’s areas I need to improve,” he comments.
“I know what it takes to do a very good qualifying lap, so basically going out there and trying to achieve that and maximise it week in week out, and [my goal is] overall becoming a better driver.
“It’s been a long season, it’s been intense. I didn’t realise how intense the Formula 1 season is, I’m looking forward to next year and what that holds for us.”
It is highly implausible that Russell will be battling Albon and Norris next season, while unlike Leclerc he will not jump into a front-running machine for his sophomore campaign. But with a wise head on young shoulders, and Mercedes in his corner, there’s every reason to expect Russell to feature at the sharp end of the grid in the coming seasons.
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