George Russell will be the Mercedes team’s regular driver next season after spending the last three years at Williams . His performances at the Grove team earned him the respect of the entire F1 paddock , and he convinced the eight-time constructors’ world champion to be Lewis Hamilton’s new teammate after five years in his young driver program. .
The Hungarian, Belgian and Russian grands prix were the Briton’s best moments of 2021, but points for Williams were a long time coming as he squandered some unique opportunities since landing in 2019.
After confirming the arrival at Mercedes, Russell spoke of the importance of quickly overcoming problems, and acknowledged that there were some moments that “remained”.
The Englishman chose the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello as a race that “went under the radar of a lot of people” after he fell out of the points in the closing laps. It would have been his first time inside the top ten in F1, and the first for Williams since the 2019 German GP.
“We had a strong start but then the incident happened. I was in the points for most of the race,” Russell said in a meeting with various media late last year that included Motorsport.com .
“I think I was P10 for a long time, and then Leclerc has to pit for some reason, so I was P9 at the red flag because of Stroll’s crash.
“I made a bad start, and I felt like it was our only chance of the year, because we didn’t have any chances up to that point. It was like the chance was gone and we never had any more, it was really tough after that race.”
Russell also singled out the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola as another difficult moment “for obvious reasons”, crashing during a safety car period when he was 10th.
After Hamilton tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the Sakhir Grand Prix in December 2020, the young Briton was given the chance to move up to Mercedes and prove himself in a winning car.
Russell qualified second and dominated the race before a Mercedes error in the pits and a puncture deprived him of a possible victory. The pilot reflected on the race as an “emotional roller coaster”.
“Everything that happened that week, the spotlights on me, the constant feedback on my performance, all the work that’s been done just to get the seat right and learn all the procedures, working with the engineers to understand the buttons on the steering wheel… it’s been hell,” said the pilot.
“It was exhausting, and in the race everything seemed to be going in order. It was under control, and everything to disappear was very difficult.”
Lastly, Russell singled out his second accident at Imola in the 2021 race – when he collided with Valtteri Bottas while battling for ninth – as another big moment from which he had to bounce back.
“These are the four moments in my three years that stick with me that were quite difficult emotionally,” he said. I guess it has made me a stronger driver.”
Russell would go on to score his first points for Williams in Hungary last year, after the team took advantage of the chaos at the start and a race with several DNFs to get both cars into the top ten.
After finishing eighth at the Hungaroring, the Briton was on the podium in Belgium , after an impressive qualifying lap secured second place on the grid in a race that never came to fruition due to rain.
Russell scored more points in Italy and Russia , taking a total of 16 in the 2021 season as Williams could celebrate its best result since 2017, finishing eighth in the constructors’ championship.
