After three years as Formula 1’s most exciting prospect, Russell replaces Valtteri Bottas on Formula 1’s top team.
George Russell has been waiting for this opportunity a long time.
Over the past 15 or so years, an F1 prospect’s career has been pretty straightforward: You get one or two years of evaluation at a smaller team, then the major team that brought you up to the series decides whether to promote you to the senior team or leave you to explore free agency as an independent driver.
Russell established himself as a future star by the middle of his second year, then proved it with an exceptional performance in a fill-in role at Mercedes during that season. But there were no seats open at the team, so he waited another year.
This is the nineteenth installment of our driver-by-driver preview of the 2022 Formula 1 season. This and next weekend, we will be covering Mercedes. You can find the rest of our previews here.
In that year, Russell exceeded all expectations at Williams. He had become undeniable by the midpoint of the season, but the bigger news for him was that Mercedes had finally decided to move on from Valtteri Bottas. The seat was his. Now, in his fourth year, his F1 career begins in earnest.
How He Got Here
Although Charles Leclerc can give him an admirable run for his money, George Russell had the best junior career of anyone to enter Formula 1 in the past decade. His record is almost spotless: A championship in his only season in British Formula 4, finishes of 6th and 3rd in his two seasons in the now-defunct Formula 3 Europe, a championship on debut in GP3 (now Formula 3) and a championship on debut in Formula 2. While he didn’t win his one attempt at the Macau Grand Prix, he did start that 2016 race from pole.
All of that made Leclerc an exceptionally prestigious prospect when he joined Williams in 2019. Unfortunately for him, that era of Williams was unprepared to give a young prospect a shot to fight for anything notable. His best finish that season was an 11th, completing the season without a single point.
2020 was more encouraging, even as Russell once again did not score a single point in the Williams. The highlight came in the second race at Bahrain, a race 2020 champion Lewis Hamilton missed after testing positive for COVID-19. Russell stepped up and fought for the win in his first-ever race in a competitive F1 car, a win he would’ve had if not for a mistake on the pit lane. It was an announcement, an announcement that George Russell is as much a part of the future of F1 as Leclerc and Verstappen.
How 2021 Went
But, even after that, Russell still had to return to Williams for a season. It was his best season at the team by far, highlighted by four points-scoring finishes in a stretch of five races over the Summer. Russell climbed up to a career-high 15th in the standings for what had in the two years prior been the worst team on the entire F1 grid.
He even scored a podium in that stretch, a second at Spa-Francorchamps. He scored that podium because the race was canceled before it ever started, sure, but he would not have been in position to do so if he hadn’t put down the qualifying lap of the year to get second on the grid the day before. It was a worthy reward for an early career highlight.
Goals for 2022
This is the hard part. Russell is ready to win races now, and Mercedes has proven over the last seven years that their cars should be ready to win races no matter how the rule set has changed. Their world-beating engines team and strong chassis development team will be working together to make something special for the new, lower-downforce cars debuting this year.
If they stay at or near the top, Russell should be good for a few race wins and as many podiums as he can stomach. Then, the complication becomes the guy in front of him.
Despite rumors to the contrary swirling all offseason, Lewis Hamilton decided not to retire after the debacle at Abu Dhabi left him without his eighth championship. It means George Russell will still be a second driver, one who will be going head-to-head in equal equipment to the best driver in modern history. George Russell’s goal for the year is to make that battle look respectable; if he accomplishes that, wins and poles are part of the expectation for his entire career from here on out.
A Successful Season Looks Like …
Although it would not be unprecedented for him to beat a legend like Hamilton on his first attempt, expecting it is unreasonable. Hamilton has literally won the most races and poles of any driver in the history of the sport and was one odd safety car release away from clinching his seventh championship in eight seasons with Mercedes. Russell should absolutely try to fight for that honor, and the likely shot at a championship that comes with it, but he should not be dejected if he comes up short.
The more realistic goal is to excel at what he can control. Win the races Hamilton can’t, take the poles where he feels most comfortable, and hold off the competition from Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, and any other team that gets anywhere near the top of the podium in every race he’s in. If he does that, his reputation as a future Formula 1 superstar will be well-earned.
From: Road & Track
Keyword: The Future Is Finally Here for Mercedes F1's George Russell