About

George Russell is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula One and driving for Williams. He is also part of the Mercedes Driver Academy. He’s won the 2018 Formula 2 championship and 2017 GP3 Series before graduating to Formula One.

Biography

George Russel was born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk to his parents Steve and Alison. He is the youngest alongside two siblings: Cara and Benjy. Russell took up karting at the age of 7 as both George and his brother Benjy were involved in competitive karting. Russell was educated at the Wisbech Grammar School before moving to Milton Keynes at the age of 18.

Racing Career

Junior Categories

Karting

Russell began karting in 2006 and progressed to the cadet class by 2009, becoming MSA British champion and British Open champion. In 2010 he became Super One British champion, Formula Kart Stars British champion, and also won the Kartmasters British Grand Prix. He graduated to KF3 class in 2011, winning the SKUSA Supernationals title. He successfully defended the title in 2012 as well.

Formula Renault 2.0

Russell made his single-seater debut in 2014, racing in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps championship for Koiranen GP. Despite missing one round because of illness he finished fourth in the championship.

Formula 3 European Championship

He graduated to Formula 3 in 2015 and made his debut with Carlin. He got his first race victory in the opening round of the season ahead of Charles Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi. He took further podium finishes to finish sixth in the championship behind the likes of Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll. In the 2016 season, Russell scored two victories and finished third in the standings.

GP3 Series

Russell signed with ART Grand Prix for the 2017 GP3 series season. Despite facing some challenges initially, he was able to sail through and comfortably win the championship, beating the likes of Anthoine Hubert and Jack Aitken in the process.

After winning the GP3 series Russell graduated to the Formula 2 Championship with ART Grand Prix in 2018. In a field stacked with future Formula One drivers in Lando Norris and Alexander Albon, Russell was able to separate himself from the field after a slow start to the season. He would go on to win the title with a victory at the feature race in Abu Dhabi, beating fellow Brit Lando Norris in the process.

Formula One

Williams(2019-21)

After dominating the junior categories Russell got an opportunity to drive for Williams in Formula One for the 2019 season alongside Formula One veteran Robert Kubica. In his debut season, Russell impressed one and all with his impressive speed as he would consistently outqualify his teammate at every race. Although the lack of a competitive car did mask Russell’s potential the considerable gap he enjoyed against Kubica made it clear that Russell was a special talent.

Although Kubica would be the one who would score a point for the team, Russell showed his potential in his debut season by outqualifying Robert at every race in the season.

For the 2020 season, Russell was joined by Nicholas Latifi as his teammate. The Williams car was still unable to bridge the gap to the midfield and it left Russell stranded in a backmarker for another season. The season would pan out similarly to Russell’s debut as he was able to outqualify his teammate on every race weekend.

Mercedes(Sakhir GP)

All this changed for one weekend though when Lewis Hamilton test positive for Covid-1 and George Russell was given the opportunity to drive the Mercedes for the weekend. In clearly the fastest car on the grid, Russell qualified 2nd and was able to jump his teammate Valtteri Bottas at the start. Russell, still learning the car in his first weekend with the team was able to keep a healthy gap to Bottas and looked certain to take the victory. This however wasn’t meant to be as Mercedes messed up Russell’s pitstop and then the subsequent puncture later in the race ruined any chance of getting the victory. Russell would finish the race in 9th and received praise from everyone for his performance through the weekend.

Back to Williams

After the stand-in role at Mercedes, Russell was back at Williams and continued to put in impressive performances. He would end the season 18th in the standings after getting 3 points in the Sakhir GP.

The 2021 F1 season for George Russell proved to be a real showcase for the Williams driver thanks to the car's improved competitiveness. Shrugging off an early season clash with Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, the driver helped secure Williams its first points in years in Hungary. He went one better with a stunning qualifying session in Spa, Belgium. The driver qualified on the front row for the race in torrential in a Williams that was nowhere close to achieving that kind of a result. With the race getting canceled and half points being awarded on the basis of the results in qualifying, George Russell secured his first-ever career podium. Soon after Toto Wolff had seen enough of Russell's performance and offered a promotion to Mercedes. After a successful three-year stint with Williams, George Russell finally had his shot in a frontrunner with Lewis Hamilton as his teammate.

Mercedes(2022-Present)

The 2022 F1 season was another season where Russell continued to defy all odds. The driver was teamed up with seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton. Contrary to expectations that stated an early bedding-in period with the team and slowly getting better, Russell hit the ground running in style. He set the tone early in his partnership with Lewis Hamilton and not only did he consistently challenge his teammate but beat him as well. By the time the 2022 F1 Abu Dhabi GP, the last race of the season rolled out, George has already established himself as one of the top drivers in F1. Out of him and Lewis, it was George that did ultimately win the only race of the season for Mercedes and secured the only position. Ending the season as the lead Mercedes driver in the standings was another proof of how good George could be in an impressive car as he laid down the marker for his World champion teammate.

The 2023 F1 season has been far less kind on George as the driver has found it hard to keep up with Lewis. The young driver has made quite a few mistakes this season and trails teammate Lewis Hamilton by more than 40 points in the championship at the halfway stage of the season.

Awards:

1. Mclaren Autosport BRDC Award(2014)
2. BRDC Superstar(2015)

Family

Father: Steve Russell

Mother: Alison Russell

Brother: Benjy Russell

Sister: Cara Russell