RUSSELL RISING TO YET MORE CHALLENGES
He said he would relish it: the challenge of engineering a Formula 1 car to title success, even if it started off the pace. “I’m looking forward to being part of the development of a car that will be progressing drastically throughout a season,” George Russell stated the first time F1 visited Jeddah, barely four months ago and less than a month before he finally made his dream move to become a Mercedes works driver. But the then Williams driver cannot have known how prescient his words would be.
Finally embarking on a long-coveted career step isn’t always easy – especially so if plenty of the problems that held you back before somehow materialise in your new surroundings. And that’s what’s happening for Russell right now in 2022. Having spent years honing his F1 craft at the back with Williams, often, especially in his rookie season in 2019, conducting race-long test sessions to make car set-up and development breakthroughs, he must do so again with Mercedes. At least the W13 is fast enough to score consistent points…
Russell’s results so far in 2022 are a fourth and fifth from Bahrain and Jeddah – but in the latter he particularly impressed, after having to recover from a messy Q3 in the season opener. Not only did he lead the way for Mercedes when Lewis Hamilton was dumped out in Jeddah Q1, but he did so commandingly – his move on Esteban Ocon’s Alpine at the final corner bold and decisive. And he stood out as an off-track leader (and as the only Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director on-site) when the drivers considered boycotting the race after the FP1 missile attack.
So, with all that in mind, how does Russell’s long-time benefactor and new full-time employer rate his races so far in 2022? “Well, it’s not just on where he finishes,” says Mercedes’ director of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin. “It is looking at how he is performing through the sessions. How well George and Lewis are working together – which is going really well. They are both very determined to get on top of this car and try and bring more performance to the future races.
“And he has really settled in very well with the team. We had high expectations for George, he is delivering on those expectations. So, we are all happy.”