George Russell, F1 driver

After starting his F1 career at Williams during its rebuild from its results nadir of 2018-2019, Russell’s move to Mercedes meant he slotted into an operation that had won the previous eight world titles and produced the engines that power the works squad and its three customer teams.
But as well as learning new and additional processes at Mercedes’ Brackley base, Russell also highlighted ...

read on

Russell and Hamilton are set to embark on their second season as Mercedes team-mates in the 2023 campaign, which will follow the difficult 2022 season where Mercedes’ W13 challenger was initially badly off the pace and impacted severely by porpoising. 
Although Hamilton was known to prefer Mercedes possibly keeping Valtteri Bottas across the garage rather than ...

read on

Russell joined Mercedes' F1 line-up at the start of 2022 after spending five years as a member of its junior driver programme, with the final three as a racer for Williams in F1 after winning back-to-back championships in GP3 and Formula 2.
But the Briton's start to life at the Mercedes works squad changed suddenly from hoping for race victories and a possible title tilt when the first ...

read on

The new ground-effects cars that were finally introduced for the 2022 season are the heaviest in the championship’s history at 798kg. 
That figure is actually 3kg up on the minimum weight target number for F1’s latest rules reset, but this was increased to incorporate the metal floor stays several teams ran throughout last season to improve their problems with porpoising, as well as ...

read on

After a difficult start to last season, as Mercedes battled excessive porpoising with its W13, the German car manufacturer made good gains over the second half of the year.
Russell was able to deliver his maiden victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix and his bosses are bullish that the lessons they took on board will put them in good stead for the design of the new W14.
Speaking to ...

read on

The pair collided at the start of the British Grand Prix after Russell tagged Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri that was caught between them leaving the startline, which saw Zhou's Alfa Romeo then immediately flipped onto its rollhoop and slid at high speed through the gravel trap.
It then smashed over the tyre barrier and came to rest in between that structure and the track debris fencing protecting ...

read on

Lewis Hamilton and Rusell qualified fifth and sixth for the season finale, with Russell claiming fifth in the race after his teammate's late retirement.
Russell's day was made harder after he lost out to Lando Norris on the first lap, and was initially stuck behind the McLaren driver.
He also lost time with a five-second penalty for an unsafe release, which he took at his second stop, after ...

read on

Fresh from its first win of the season in Brazil last weekend, Mercedes arrived in Abu Dhabi looking to close out the campaign on a high and fight at the front once again.
Lewis Hamilton led Russell to a 1-2 finish in the daytime FP1 on Friday at the Yas Marina Circuit, but Max Verstappen took Red Bull back to the head of the field in second practice.
Verstappen ended the session three ...

read on

Lewis Hamilton took fourth in FP2, where all the regular 2022 drivers were at the wheels of their machines after eight even made way for eight young or reserve drivers in FP1.
For the one-hour only practice session that runs in comparable temperatures to qualifying and the race, Zhou Guanyu and Sebastian Vettel led the pack out of the pits, with the early running completed on the medium and ...

read on

Five days after Mercedes ended its win drought in 2022 with victory in Brazil, the silver cars once again rose to the head of the running order during the daytime practice at the Yas Marina Circuit.
The early part of the session saw Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc - who go head-to-head for second place in the championship this week - trade fastest laptimes on the soft compound tyre.
While ...

read on

But its 1-2 finish in the Brazilian Grand Prix is proof of how relentless it has been in its pursuit of performance throughout the campaign.
Although there have been times when it has found itself in a development or set-up cul-de-sac, it has worked diligently to get the answers it needed to move the W13 to the front of the grid.
While there have been some tough moments this year, the ...

read on

Russell claimed his maiden grand prix victory on Sunday at Interlagos, controlling proceedings from the front of the pack after also winning Saturday's sprint race.
He led home a 1-2 finish for Mercedes ahead of Lewis Hamilton and gave the team its first victory of the season, snapping a win drought that dated back to last December's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The win only furthered Russell's ...

read on

Russell scored his maiden grand prix win at Interlagos on Sunday after controlling proceedings to lead home a 1-2 finish ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.
It ended Mercedes? winless season with one race to spare, and came two years after Russell was cruelly denied a likely victory at the Sakhir Grand Prix when he made a stand-in appearance for the team.
But it emerged after the ...

read on

Russell led for the majority of the race, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton was hit by his old Red Bull nemesis Max Verstappen following a restart, which forced Verstappen to pit for a new nose.
Hamilton dropped to eighth but recovered back to second, finishing ahead of both Ferraris. Verstappen recovered to finish sixth.
Read Also:

Brazilian GP: Russell takes maiden F1 win in ...

read on

Russell laid the groundwork for his maiden grand prix win with victory in Saturday's 24-lap sprint race, which yielded him de facto pole for Sunday's race.
The 2018 Formula 2 champion took a commanding lead at the start, his victory chances boosted by a clash between teammate Lewis Hamilton and world champion Max Verstappen.
Regardless of the melee behind him, Russell delivered a measured ...

read on

Polesitter Russell powered clear at two safety restarts to avoid a battle with his teammate, who he was free to race, as Hamilton recovered from his fall to eighth after tagging with 2021 rival Verstappen in what was an action-packed penultimate round of the campaign at Interlagos.
With Red Bull's day getting worse when Sergio Perez was stuck on the wrong tyre for the final stint, Ferrari could ...

read on

Russell passed Red Bull rival Max Verstappen en route to victory in Saturday's 24-lap sprint race at Interlagos, securing himself top spot on the grid for today's Brazilian Grand Prix. 
He will be joined on the front row by Mercedes teammate Hamilton, who finished third in the sprint but gains a place thanks to Carlos Sainz's five-place grid penalty due to an engine change on ...

read on

Russell picked up eight points and P1 on the grid for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix after charging from third place on the grid to win the final F1 sprint of the season, defeating Red Bull rival Verstappen in a wheel-to-wheel battle.
Russell was aided by starting on the soft tyre compared to Verstappen's mediums, and was able to get within DRS range of the two-time world champion for the lead ...

read on

The Briton battled fiercely with the two-time champion - the pair dicing wheel-to-wheel for three laps before eventually the W13 driver seized first place and ran away to victory.
As Verstappen continuined to tumble before sustaining damage, Lewis Hamilton completed a double Mercedes podium behind Carlos Sainz, while shock polesitter Kevin Magnussen notched eighth.
Verstappen and ...

read on

Russell prevailed in an epic battle for victory with Red Bull?s Max Verstappen, who had hit the front at the start of Lap 3 after passing Kevin Magnussen, who started on a shock pole position for Haas.
Ferrari?s Carlos Sainz finished second, after clashing with Verstappen, who dropped back to fourth. Magnussen fell down the order to finish eighth.
2022 Brazilian Grand Prix sprint ...

read on

The Mercedes driver was making a second attempt at a quick lap in Q3 on the damp circuit when he ran off the road at Turn 4 after locking up the rears on the entry and touching the grass.
He could do little to slow himself down and ended up bouncing through a gravel trap before ending up on the escape road near the tyre barriers.
But after trying to do a spin turn to get himself facing the ...

read on

Russell started second, but after giving space to Hamilton he emerged from the opening sequence of corners on the first lap in fourth place, a position he still held at the end of the race.
Russell admitted that recent frustrations, including his first corner collision with Carlos Sainz in Austin, encouraged him to take a careful approach, especially when battling with his team-mate.
?I ...

read on

Russell topped both FP2 and FP3 for Mercedes at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and looked to be in the fight for pole after sitting just 0.132s off Verstappen following the opening runs in Q3.
But Russell endured a scrappy final lap, struggling with oversteer at Turn 5 before running wide at Turn 12 at the end of the back straight. This caused him to run wide and ultimately lose ...

read on

Home hero Sergio Perez took fourth, while Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas was a surprise star of qualifying to split the Ferrari drivers and secure sixth on the grid for Sunday's race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
After Hamilton had led Q1 and Q2, he lost his opening time in Q3 for cutting Turn 3, with Verstappen leading at the head of the times after those first runs in the final segment ...

read on

Charles Leclerc took fourth for Ferrari but ended up even further back from the dominant Mercedes pair, complaining about understeer aboard his F1-75.
As the one-hour session commenced, Valtteri Bottas led the pack out of the pits ? the Alfa Romeo running the medium tyres for the initial laps ? and he duly set the first-place benchmark at 1m21.462s.
A few minutes later, Hamilton was the ...

read on