The guy turning 24 today has been under the spotlight since he drove Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes almost to victory in his 1st race on a decent F1car at Sakhir GP 2020.
Bad for him, Lewis quickly recovered from Covid and came back to his seat and George had to drive his slow Williams in the latest GP of the season as he did in 2019 and 2020, his rookie seasons in F1. From that moment on, the guy has always been part of the debate: how much money could you spend – as a Team Owner, even if you’re one of the biggest car manufacturer in the world – to have your car winning the race? Is Lewis Hamilton worth his wage? Is that too high, since this nice newcomer was doing so good in his first race, even faster than Bottas? Back at the wheel of his Williams, with a car that was slightly better than in 2020, Russell had a 2021 season that was a bit under expectations and – hear that – in Hungarian GP his lower rated team mate Latifi got ahead at the start and stayed there until the chequered flag. This is surely not a big deal and George remains one of the highest potential race winners in the coming 2022 season.
George has been also a good karter: after a winning start with Minikarts in 2012 he became the CIK-FIA European Junior Champion in the KF3 (former OKJ) before soon moving to single seaters in 2014. He never raced in KZ but once in a while he comes back at the track for some karting. In Junior Racing he basically won everything: He won back-to-back titles GP3 2017 and F2 (2018), stepping on to Formula 1 in 2019. The legend says that Toto Wolff himself received a 15 years old George in his office and that the young boy showed him a PowerPoint presentation where he listed every reason why he could be a successful Mercedes driver in the future. To toto and Formula One fans: take off your shoes, put your feet up, it seems that the moment has come.
George has been also a good karter: after a winning start with Minikarts in 2012 he became the CIK-FIA European Junior Champion in the KF3 (former OKJ) before soon moving to single seaters in 2014. He never raced in KZ but once in a while he comes back at the track for some karting. In Junior Racing he basically won everything: He won back-to-back titles GP3 2017 and F2 (2018), stepping on to Formula 1 in 2019. The legend says that Toto Wolff himself received a 15 years old George in his office and that the young boy showed him a PowerPoint presentation where he listed every reason why he could be a successful Mercedes driver in the future. To toto and Formula One fans: take off your shoes, put your feet up, it seems that the moment has come.