INTERVIEW: George Russell has his sights set on a Championship battle

Since winning the GP3 and F2 titles in back-to-back years across 2017 and 2018, there was no direct route to potential success in F1 at that time, as the path forward from 2019 onwards was blocked by the partnership of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

Instead, Russell was placed in a Williams car at the back of the grid to learn F1 race craft and gain invaluable experience, doing so diligently for three tough years in which results were tortuously hard to come by.

The irony for Russell, over his first two years with Williams in particular, is that his only points-scoring finish was when he stepped in as a replacement for the Covid-hit Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.

It was a race that, but for a botched pit stop where Russell was sent out on the front tyres meant for Bottas, he could (and arguably should) have won. Instead, he was fortunate to finish ninth and collect two points. At least the rot had been stopped after a run of 36 pointless races to start his F1 career.

But in qualifying just 0.026s behind polesitter Bottas, and finishing ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari, Russell earmarked himself as one to watch if given the chance in front-running machinery.

For 2022, it appeared that opportunity had finally arrived. Bottas was released, joining Alfa Romeo, whilst Russell became Hamilton's new team-mate. After three years of waiting in the wings, biding his time, this was the moment he had craved.

Unfortunately for Russell, that was the year when Mercedes' era of dominance came to an end. The introduction of new ground-effect aerodynamic regulations proved the Brackley team's undoing. Championship challenges became a thing of the past.

Over the past four years, Russell has had to continue to be patient. There have been five wins, 23 additional podiums and seven pole positions along the way, and he proved himself admirably in going up against Hamilton, but there has been no title push.

Now, a new era beckons for F1, with many believing the Mercedes power unit will again initially dominate. The overriding question is whether Mercedes has built the car around it that will end Russell's seven-year wait for what he sees as true F1 success, as achieved by close friend Lando Norris with McLaren last year.

Russell knows he can "definitely mix it with those guys at the top", albeit recognising that “Max is the gold standard at the moment".

He added: “He’s the one that I'd want to go head-to-head with, and I think he's the only one that people would question. He’s the only driver on the grid that you'd want to be team-mates with to see your competitiveness.”

Russell, who turns 28 in mid-February, draws on what Michael Schumacher endured at Ferrari before finally making a breakthrough with the Scuderia, albeit he had already won two titles with Benetton before making a move in which he, too, had to be patient before cementing his legacy.

After the second of those Championships with Benetton in 1995, Schumacher had to wait until 2000 before adding a third.

“I always remind myself of Schumacher at Ferrari that it took five years with the team before the first Championship,” he said. “People only remember the glory years, but no one remembers 1996, 1997. It wasn’t a failure, but there were no Championship wins.

“So, for me to finish second in the Championship, or 20^th in the Championship, honestly, it's kind of the same thing. You’re not winning. That has been learning for me as well, coming from Williams, when I was at the back every single weekend. That was so frustrating."

“Now I'm in this position, still not fighting for a Championship, it isn't really much different, if that makes sense. You're either fighting for a Championship or you're not, and if you're not, no one ever wants to fight for P2."

Crucially, Russell stated: “So I'm ready for it, but I know my time, I have to be patient.”

Last season proved to be Russell's best to date, scoring wins in Canada and Singapore, and along with a further seven podium finishes, he equalled his career-best of fourth in the Drivers' standings, albeit with a high of 319 points.

Russell was never truly in the mix, finishing 104 points adrift of Norris by the close of the season, but he felt he proved himself, in particular, learning lessons from the 2023 campaign, his second alongside Hamilton. They stood him in good stead and will carry him into the year.

"During my time with Lewis, I sort of felt that I wanted to push myself to see if there was more in the tank, and go beyond the limit and see what happens," he said.

"It was mainly in '23. I wasn't satisfied just fighting for podiums. I preferred pushing the boundaries more to try and get a highlight result, rather than just settling for a podium or a P4.”

"That sort of bit me in the ass a bit, so I reined it back a little bit [for last year], and in turn, that probably helped me get bigger results."

There were two additional aspects to last season that were also stand-out from Russell's perspective. The first is that, with Hamilton's departure to Ferrari, he effectively took on the team leader role as Mercedes promoted another of its up-and-coming drivers: Kimi Antonelli.

Describing himself as "quite a rational and objective person", it was a position he relished.

"This is a sport when emotions do get high quite a lot, especially in the heat of the moment, and I think that's absolutely fine," said Russell. "But when you're in the engineers' office, the design office, talking about updates and the direction we need to take, it's very important to have a clear mind and a clear head, to not overreact in given moments.

"It's important to try and apply more objective reasoning why a certain weekend may have been a failure, or may not have been a failure, because there is never one reason that makes a weekend great or a weekend bad.”

"But, definitely, there are always theories flying around, pointing at certain aspects as to the reason why we have failed, and if you action a plan based on that theory, it can take you in the wrong direction, potentially."

The second aspect was the frustration of the contract delay he had to contend with, as team principal Toto Wolff courted Verstappen, whilst at the same time trying to perform on track. It was not until mid-October that Russell finally put pen to paper.

Russell has conceded that, "to a degree", he felt under-appreciated by Mercedes, that his saga was allowed to drag on as long as it did. He maintains that he "focused on the racing", with lessons learned for the future should he find himself in a similar situation.

"Whatever the noise is that’s going on externally, there’s no real need to worry too much about that,” he said.

“You can be the nicest guy or the most hated one, but if you get in the car and you do the job, nobody remembers or thinks about the rest. They only care about the lap times.”

Images courtesy of Getty Images.