George Russell

Williams race driver Russell, returning to the wheel for Mercedes after driving its 2019 car in the official post-season test last week, completed more than 200 laps over Sunday and Monday at the Yas Marina circuit.<br>Sunny weather allowed Russell to complete 100 and 118 laps on the two respective days as Pirelli's 2021 development testing came to an end for the year.<br>Pirelli tasked Renault ...

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Williams race driver Russell took over the Mercedes from Valtteri Bottas for the second day of the Yas Marina test, and outpaced Leclerc by two tenths of a second.<br>The F1 rookie, who has been a Mercedes protege for several years, lapped a tenth slower than Bottas's Tuesday benchmark – but Mercedes had insisted during the grand prix weekend that Russell's latest test was not a direct ...

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Russell will drive for his regular team on Tuesday morning at the start of the two-day 2020 tyre test before handing the FW42 over to ex-F2 driver Roy Nissany for the afternoon.<br>He will then drive the Mercedes W10 on Wednesday, after Valtteri Bottas runs it on Tuesday.<br>World champion Lewis Hamilton is not available as he has team sponsor commitments.<br>Russell will return to Abu Dhabi next ...

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Russell outpacing Kubica by half a second en route to 19th on the grid in Abu Dhabi meant he completed a rare whitewash in qualifying head-to-head over a season against the Polish F1 returnee.<br>And while Kubica was within half a tenth of Russell's best time in both Bahrain and China, he would never get that close again for the rest of the year, ending up with a median deficit of 0.488s to his ...

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Russell reported that he wasn’t feeling fit on Thursday evening, so the Grove team cast around the paddock for a replacement.<br>Mercedes reserve Esteban Ocon had a seat fitting, but due to his long legs he was not able to fit comfortably in the car with Russell’s custom-made carbon seat – and there was no opportunity to make one for him.<br>The team turned instead to its 2018 race driver ...

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Russell has a medical issue and underwent a check this morning. He was given the go ahead to drive in FP1, and a decision will be made later on whether he will be fit enough to continue.<br>The team does not want to put reserve driver Nicholas Latifi in the car as he is focussing on his F2 programme this weekend, and there is also the issue with his superlicence.<br>It has thus had to look outside ...

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Latifi, who has completed six FP1 sessions and three days of testing this year, has long been favourite for the drive.<br>He had to finish in the top five of this year’s FIA F2 championship in order to guarantee himself a superlicence, and he currently lies second with just the Abu Dhabi round to go and the required licence points secure. Latifi will be joined at Williams by George Russell, who ...

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Current Williams reserve driver Nicholas Latifi remains the favourite to take the seat, which would make Russell the senior driver on the line-up in only his second year.<br>However, Hulkenberg is the obvious choice should the team be in a position to hire a driver who doesn't bring a budget.<br>Russell says he just wants a quick teammate against whom he can further a reputation.<br>"My preference ...

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The crash happened when Grosjean had tried to hang his Haas VF-19 round the outside of Russell exiting Turn 8 in a lap 35 battle for 17th place.<br>His right-front tyre made contact with the left rear of Russell and the Briton's Williams was speared into the wall, Russell retiring on the spot and telling his team "I shouldn't be surprised" in the immediate aftermath.<br>Grosjean went on to finish ...

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As Russell rounded the Ascari chicane and entered the back straight, a recovery vehicle was making its way towards Sergio Perez’s crashed car on the grass on the left-hand side of the track. <br>When Russell had cleared the stricken Racing Point and approached Parabolica, he radioed his Williams team to say: “What are they doing bringing that truck onto the track while we’re still driving ...

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Williams' delayed FW42 began the season well adrift of the rest of Formula 1's 2019 crop of cars, but in-season development has allowed it to make strides, thus far culminating in Russell qualifying among midfield cars in Hungary.<br>However, while not aided by the above-average length of the Spa-Francorchamps lap, Russell's gap to first place in Q1 in Belgium was his biggest all season - with a ...

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Russell stepped up to F1 with Williams after back-to-back titles in GP3 and Formula 2, but has joined the British team in an uncompetitive state and is the only driver without a point after team-mate Robert Kubica's fortunate 10th-place finish in Germany.<br>Prior to his championship-winning seasons on the F1 support package, Russell had a less successful two-year spell in European F3, but still ...

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Russell has performed well in difficult circumstances in his rookie F1 season, after joining the Williams line-up as Formula 2 champion.<br>Williams’s struggles have left Russell almost exclusively fighting teammate Robert Kubica at the tail of the field, but Russell’s performances have led some to link him with a possible move to Mercedes, which has backed him since his title-winning GP3 ...

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Russell stepped up to F1 this season after back-to-back titles in GP3 and Formula 2, but Williams has struggled and kept the British driver and returning F1 race winner Kubica in an almost exclusive battle at the back.<br>Mercedes protege Russell has outpaced Kubica in every qualifying session so far, while Kubica’s struggles have led to constant suggestions – mainly from his home country in ...

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The British rookie nearly made it through to Q2 for the first time this year with a stand-out performance in qualifying at Hungaroring, as Williams' new update package appeared to pay dividends.<br>But while encouraged by the steps that Williams has made, Russell is also cautious about the chances of a repeat strong performance in the future if the team is not as open-minded to trying different ...

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Wolff says that the team is facing a straight choice between keeping incumbent Valtteri Bottas and promoting reserve driver Esteban Ocon, and he believes that Russell should continue on his learning curve at Williams, where he has an ongoing contract.<br>Wolff cited Max Verstappen as an example of a driver who was given space to learn.<br>"I think you've got to consider that these guys come into ...

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At the end of the first qualifying session, Russell missed out on his first Q2 appearance by just 0.05s from Romain Grosjean, having been in the midfield mix throughout the weekend.<br>Russell explained that, although he felt that his fastest lap in third free practice was strong, initial predictions from within the Williams team suggested that the car was still some way off its ...

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Russell said he and teammate Robert Kubica were “really struggling” in the rain-hit German GP but discovered a “massive” difference with a back-to-back run in Friday’s wet second practice session at the Hungaroring. <br>The rookie said he lapped 2.5 seconds quicker and had a completely different feeling in his car after using the rain-hit session to trial changes to the set-up he used in ...

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During the penultimate safety car period Russell occupied 13th position, ahead of Lance Stroll, who elected to pit for slicks as the safety car began its final lap on lap 45.<br>Stroll was immediately able to bring his tyres up to temperature on the restart and, after a flurry of pitstops as the field changed intermediate tyres for slicks, momentarily led the race.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Debate ...

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Various grid penalties meant Russell was due to start the race 18th, despite qualifying 19th and having his own three-place grid penalty for impeding Daniil Kvyat.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Russell penalised after "ruining" Kvyat's qualifying<br><br><br>However, Williams has since replaced the front wing assembly on Russell's car with one of a different specification.<br>As that is not allowed ...

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The Russian came into the last two corners in Q1 to find Russell going slowly at the back of a queue of cars that also included Kvyat's Toro Rosso teammate Alex Albon.<br>Kvyat was able to jink the steering wheel to the left and get past safely, but his lap was ruined, and he didn't progress to Q2.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Austrian GP: Starting grid in pictures<br>Austrian GP: Leclerc beats ...

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Although the team has faced a difficult start to the campaign, as it bids to find improvements that can lift it off the back of the grid, it has not let its situation affect its desire to shine in other areas.<br>That has included a run of impressive pitstop performance, including the tally of having the top three fastest stops of the 2019 season.<br>This included a stunning 1.97 seconds stop for ...

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Russell ran wide trying to overtake Williams teammate Kubica around the outside at the fast Signes right-hander early in the French Grand Prix and hit a polystyrene board with the front left of his front wing.<br>Unseen to television viewers, he managed to get ahead of Kubica later on but the slight strike of the braking distance board eventually prompted a second pitstop and dropped him to the ...

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Russell outqualified Robert Kubica, taking the penultimate slot on the grid, but fell behind his teammate on the first lap.<br>He then pitted for hard tyres - which meant he did not have to stop again - at the same time as the frontrunners, when the safety car was deployed after a puncture for the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.<br>After Antonio Giovinazzi tagged Kubica into a spin on lap 15, Russell ...

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The Williams Formula 1 driver crashed backwards into the barriers at Turn 4 in the closing minutes of final free practice on Saturday, bringing out the red flags.<br>After examination of his car back in the Williams garage, the team decided that following the rear-end collision a new gearbox would be needed. It means Russell will take a five-place penalty, which will almost certainly move him to ...

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