George Russell

George William Russell (; born 15 February 1998) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Mercedes. Russell has won Formula One Grands Prix across eight seasons.

Born and raised in King's Lynn, Russell began competitive kart racing aged seven. After a successful karting career—culminating in back-to-back victories at the junior European Championship in 2011 and 2012—Russell graduated to junior formulae. He won his first title at the 2014 BRDC F4 Championship. He then won the 2017 GP3 Series and the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship back-to-back with ART, becoming the fifth driver to win the GP2/Formula 2 championship in their rookie season and the second driver to win both titles in their respective rookie seasons.

A member of the Mercedes Junior Team since 2017, Russell signed for Williams in to partner Robert Kubica, making his Formula One debut at the . He substituted for Lewis Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix for Mercedes, but was denied victory due to a team error and a puncture after leading the majority of the race. Russell scored his maiden podium at the curtailed 2021 Belgian Grand Prix with Williams. In , Russell replaced Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes to partner Hamilton; in his first season, Russell achieved his maiden pole position in Hungary and his maiden win in São Paulo, finishing fourth in the World Drivers' Championship. After a winless season for Mercedes in , Russell won the Austrian and Las Vegas Grands Prix in , followed by the Canadian and Singapore Grands Prix in ; in 2024, he also became the first driver in 30 years to be disqualified from a race win. Amidst a new regulation cycle introduced for , Mercedes emerged as the fastest team, with Russell winning the Australian and Austrian Grands Prix.

As of the , Russell has achieved race wins, pole positions, fastest laps, and podiums in Formula One. Russell is contracted to remain at Mercedes until at least the end of the 2026 season.

Early life Russell was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, to father Steve and mother Alison. His father managed a business selling seeds and pulses, Russell is the youngest of three siblings, including sister Cara and brother Benjy. He grew up in Tydd St Giles/Wisbech and Castle Rising.

Russell took up karting at the age of seven, following his brother Benjy, a competitive karter who won the 2007 Super 1 National Kart Championship in the Rotax Max category. Russell picked up his number 63 from the kart his brother rented at the time.

Russell attended Wisbech Grammar School, but shifted to homeschooling so that he could devote more time to his racing career. At 18, he moved to Milton Keynes to be closer to his junior racing team.

Junior racing career Karting (2006–2013) Russell began karting in 2006 and progressed to the cadet class by 2009, becoming MSA British champion and British Open champion. In 2010 he moved to the Rotax Mini Max category where he became Super One British champion, Formula Kart Stars British champion, and also won the Kartmasters British Grand Prix.

Russell graduated to the KF3 class in 2011. He joined the Intrepid karting team with help from Intrepid's Alex Albon; his teammates that year included Albon and Charles Leclerc. In 2012, Russell became the first driver in history to successfully defend the Junior European Championship, and nearly defended his SKUSA title following Lance Stroll's disqualification, although Stroll's win was ultimately reinstated. Russell moved up to KF1, finishing 19th in the CIK-FIA World Championship.

Formula 4 (2014) In 2014, Russell made his single-seater debut, simultaneously competing in BRDC Formula 4 (Lanan Racing) and Formula Renault 2.0 Alps (Koiranen GP). He led most of the BRDC F4 season, but lost the points lead to teammate Arjun Maini before the final race at Snetterton, which Formula Scout attributed to a mid-season case of chickenpox. He won that race to claim the title. As a reward, he was granted a GP3 test at Yas Marina.

Formula Renault 2.0 (2014) Russell had a more difficult season in Formula Renault 2.0 Alps. Although he was initially supposed to race for Prema, Lance Stroll's father (Prema's part-owner and main funder) vetoed Russell from the team, even though Stroll was racing in Italian F4 and not Formula Renault. Russell found a landing spot with Koiranen, Looking back, Russell said that Tech 1 Racing (his other option to replace Prema) would have been a better fit, and that especially "in go-karting, he was the man to beat."

Russell's season ended on a high note after talent scout Gwen Lagrue (who later recruited him to Mercedes) arranged for him to join Tech 1 for the final round of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 season at Jerez. Eurocup was a higher level of competition than Alps.

At the end of the season, Russell won the Autosport BRDC Award after successfully testing Formula Two, DTM, and GT3 cars. At seventeen, he was the youngest-ever winner of the award; the BRDC lowered the entry age to accommodate him.

Formula Three (2015–2016) 2015: Debut in FIA European F3 and Masters podium

Although Russell was expected to spend 2015 competing full-time in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, his BRDC Award win prompted him to skip directly to European Formula Three, where he spent the next two years.

In 2015, Russell drove for Carlin, a Volkswagen affiliate. winning one race and collecting three podiums; PaddockScout opined that his qualifying pace was "his one obvious weak-spot," and that he primarily stood out for his race pace and ability to cleanly overtake other drivers. although fellow rookie Lance Stroll finished above him in the overall classification (the Rookies' Championship re-scores each race to remove non-rookies). He also finished second at the 2015 Masters of Formula 3 exhibition race, behind Antonio Giovinazzi.

2016: Third in Europe with Hitech In 2016, Russell switched to Hitech GP, a new Mercedes affiliate which was competing in its first full European Formula Three season. and technical support (including a suspension upgrade) from Williams. Stroll (whose family was funding Prema ) cruised to the title, with Russell finishing third, behind Prema drivers Stroll and Maximilian Günther. Nonetheless, Mercedes was impressed by Russell's performances and signed him to its driver academy at the end of the season. After making it to Formula One, Russell questioned the fairness of the 2016 competition, stating that it was "almost laughable to see ... how wrong that championship was."

As Russell advanced through the junior pyramid, the costs of racing grew significantly. He estimated that it cost "£50K a year if you want to compete, £200K if you want to win." Steve Russell spent roughly £1.5m to fund his son's junior career. When Russell was sixteen, his father explained that he could not keep on funding him and that Russell needed to find a junior driver programme. )

Russell applied for a spot on the Mercedes Junior Team. Unlike modern Formula One driver academies, Mercedes signed only one driver at a time, although it funded additional drivers on a short-term basis.

To audition Russell for a full-time academy spot, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff offered to fund Russell's 2015 European Formula Three season. However, Mercedes's top F3 affiliate was Prema, from which Russell had already been vetoed. Russell chose Volkswagen, which did not have a Formula One team at the time. Russell switched to a Mercedes-powered F3 team for 2016. Wolff "set hard targets" for Russell, asking him to win the GP3 and Formula 2 titles before progressing to Formula One.

GP3 Series (2017)

With financial help from Mercedes, Russell secured a drive with ART Grand Prix for the 2017 season. ART was GP3's dominant team, having won six of the last seven team titles. In 2017, it swept the top four places in the standings.

Russell won the title as a rookie, scoring four wins and finishing 79 points ahead of the second-placed Jack Aitken. He locked up the title with two races to go. and a close three-way battle at Monza. FIA Formula 2 (2018)

ART promoted Russell to its Formula Two team for the 2018 season. In addition, Mercedes promoted Russell to first-team reserve driver, sharing duties with Pascal Wehrlein. The 2018 F2 grid was "possibly the strongest field of the last decade", and featured several future F1 racers, including Lando Norris, Alex Albon, Nyck de Vries, and Nicholas Latifi.

ART did not carry over its lopsided dominance from the prior year's F3 season, as Norris's Carlin took the teams' championship. Although Formula Two is a spec series and every engine is built by the same company, Russell, Albon, and Norris agreed that in practice, teams had engines of varying quality. Albon and Norris said that Russell had the best engine that year, while Russell and Albon said that Norris's engine was very competitive early in the season. After ten races, Norris led the standings. Russell heated up at midseason, finishing either first or second in five out of six races. He qualified in the top four at all but one race (where he had engine trouble).

Formula One career In October 2015, Russell drove a Formula One car for the first time, when he tested the McLaren MP4-26 at Silverstone as a prize for winning the 2014 Autosport BRDC Award. After he joined the Mercedes Junior Team, Mercedes gave him more testing opportunities. He drove a Mercedes for the first time in April 2017, testing the 2015 Mercedes W06 at Portimão. He then conducted formal test drives for Mercedes (2017 and 2018) and Force India-Mercedes (2018).

Russell made his Grand Prix weekend debut at the end of the 2017 season, driving for Force India during free practice at the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix. Mercedes promoted him to first-team reserve driver in 2018.

Williams (2019–2021) In October 2018, Mercedes arranged for Russell to make his Formula One debut with engine customer Williams-Mercedes. Russell had previously applied for a Williams drive after winning the 2017 GP3 title, but Williams's Paddy Lowe was unmoved by his new PowerPoint presentation and Russell went to Formula 2. Russell signed a three-year contract with Williams but remained a Mercedes test driver. He was partnered by Robert Kubica for the 2019 season and Nicholas Latifi in 2020 and 2021. His first appearance for Williams was at the 2018 post-season test at Yas Marina Circuit, driving the FW41.

Russell's years at Williams were difficult. Mercedes had hoped that Williams would field a competitive car; as Russell later noted, Williams had finished no worse than fifth in the constructors' standings from to . and did not produce a car that could reliably compete for points until 2021, Russell's final year with the team. The team was so strapped for cash that it considered replacing Russell with Kevin Magnussen after the 2020 season if Magnussen could find enough sponsor money to keep the team afloat.

Due to Russell's extended run at Williams, he is third on the list of most race starts in a career before scoring points, with 37. However, the Formula One team principals viewed his performances more favorably. In 2020, a year where Russell scored only three points and finished 18th in the standings, the team principals ranked him that year's sixth-best driver. In addition, Russell led Williams back to respectability in 2021, scoring 16 points and recording a rare podium for Williams.

2019–2020: Rookie season and first points

In 2019, Williams struggled for form. At Russell's Formula One race debut, the , Russell qualified 19th and finished 16th. He acknowledged that his experience was difficult, remarking that the car was "four seconds off the pace" and that he was lapped multiple times. Williams's slow pace continued into the season, and in most races Kubica was Russell's only on-track competition: Russell did not finish ahead of a car from another team until round six, the . He also outqualified Kubica at all twenty-one races.

Russell's best placement was 11th at the rain-affected , where Williams rolled out an upgrade, six cars retired without classifying, and another two cars received time penalties after the race. He came close to finishing tenth, but unsuccessfully asked to pit for slick tyres during a safety car and ran wide on turn two several laps later, allowing Kubica to overtake him and score the team's only point that year. Russell also finished 12th at the after a late safety car allowed him to unlap himself, missing out on points by 1.668 seconds. He finished 20th in the Drivers' Championship, scoring no points to Kubica's one. Russell later remarked that as a competitor, it was hard for him to watch fellow rookies Alex Albon and Lando Norris competing for points and podiums after beating them the year before in F2. However, Russell came close to scoring on several occasions, such as the (starting 11th but falling to 16th after running into the gravel during a re-start lap) the (finishing 12th), the (reaching 9th at one point before dropping back to 11th), and the (crashing out from tenth place under safety car conditions).

Russell scored his first points at the , following a surprise promotion to the Mercedes senior team when Lewis Hamilton tested positive for COVID-19. His performance at Sakhir was widely acclaimed by both Mercedes and the media. He narrowly missed out on pole position, overtook teammate Valtteri Bottas at the first corner, and led the majority of the race. However, he was forced to pit twice in-a-row when the Mercedes pit crew accidentally fitted Bottas's front tyres on his car, following a radio failure. He overtook Bottas a second time, recovered to second place, and was closing in on race leader Sergio Pérez, when a puncture forced him to pit again with ten laps to go. He finished ninth, picking up two points for the finish and one point for the fastest lap. He later remarked that while "I was the same driver [in Sakhir] as I had been before ... I was exactly the same driver a week later [driving for Williams at the season-ending ] when I was out in Q1." In Abu Dhabi, he donned a special helmet to honor the Williams family, who had sold the team in October. He finished 18th in the Drivers' Championship, scoring three points, all for Mercedes. Russell initially blamed the incident on Bottas, walking over to Bottas after the crash and slapping his helmet (Bottas responded with a middle finger), and accusing him of "trying to kill [them] both". However, Russell later retracted his claims and apologised to Bottas and Williams. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff acknowledged that Bottas should not have been side by side with a Williams in the first place, but reserved the bulk of his criticism for Russell, a Mercedes junior who had just taken out a Mercedes. Both drivers sought to downplay the dispute, at least publicly, after Bottas rejoined Mercedes in . thumb Russell at the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix. He finished 11th, but received praise from Fernando Alonso for his performance.

Despite his DNF at Imola, Russell helped Williams to its best season in several years. He came close to scoring points at a number of races, including the (gearbox failure following a restart in 15th place); the (rising from 19th to 12th without help from driver retirements); the (hydraulic failure after qualifying in tenth); and the (12th place). At the , Russell qualified in eighth place, Williams's highest grid position since 2017. He was still in tenth near the end of the race, but after a fourteen-lap defensive battle, Fernando Alonso passed him with three laps to go. After the race, Alonso consoled Russell with a hug.

Russell scored his first points for Williams two races later at the , moving from 17th on the grid to eighth. Following the race, Mercedes agreed to promote Russell to the senior team for the 2022 season. In the very next race, Russell collected his maiden podium at the under unusual circumstances. He qualified in second after a rain-affected Saturday, the first front-row start for Williams since the 2017 Italian Grand Prix. The downpour continued into race day, so the race director ran the race for two laps under safety car conditions before calling it off, handing Russell his first Formula One podium finish. It was Williams's only podium finish between the 2017 and 2025 Azerbaijan Grands Prix. Russell also scored points at the (ninth) and the (tenth, after qualifying in third). He placed 15th in the Drivers' Championship, scoring 16 points to Latifi's seven. From 2022 to 2024, he was paired with seven-time World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton. The team placed third in 2022, second in 2023, and fourth in 2024.

2022–2023: Maiden win and pole position The timing of Russell's move to Mercedes was unfortunate, as it coincided with a regulations change that ended Mercedes's dominance of the sport. Mercedes's new aerodynamics concept performed very well in simulations but was difficult to drive in real life. The team scored one victory in the first two years of the ground effect era. Russell at the 2022 British Grand Prix. Russell achieved his maiden victory at the São Paulo Grand Prix. Russell and Hamilton spent the first nine races of the 2022 season testing experimental parts for the Mercedes car. Although the drivers swapped testing duties every race, Russell accumulated a 34-point lead over Hamilton after round nine, which team boss Toto Wolff attributed to Hamilton's experiments backfiring. After round nine, Russell and Hamilton finished out the season essentially level on points, with Russell scoring one more point than his teammate. his first pole position at Hungary; and his first Grand Prix and sprint race victories at Interlagos. He finished fourth in the Drivers' Championship, outscoring teammate Hamilton by 35 points.

was another difficult year for Mercedes and for Russell in particular. After some promising performances at the start of the season (leading the until an untimely red flag and scoring a podium at Barcelona ), Russell's results declined in the second half of the season for a variety of reasons, including a record seven pit stops in one race (Zandvoort), an accidental last-lap crash (Singapore), an over-aggressive strategy call (Suzuka), and Hamilton colliding into him after a front-row start (Lusail).

Russell salvaged a measure of pride with a third-place finish at the , which clinched second place in the Constructors' Championship for Mercedes. He finished eighth in the Drivers' Championship, the lowest for a Mercedes driver since , and 59 points behind Hamilton. After the Abu Dhabi race, Russell commented that he had "let the side down a couple of times this year", but that it meant "a huge amount" to help the team finish second. Although he called his own season "a complete disaster",

2024: Final year with Hamilton Russell at the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix, where he took his second career win. For the 2024 season, Mercedes fundamentally changed its design concept. The new Mercedes W15 was fast but inconsistent, hard on tyres, and difficult to set up properly. Although the team was not competitive until midseason, Russell commented that the staff was "making progress" behind the scenes. At round three, the , Russell crashed heavily while trying to overtake Fernando Alonso (who received a 20-second penalty for brake-checking Russell) for sixth place on the penultimate lap. The accident left him immobile and defenceless behind a 250 km/h blind turn for ten seconds before the race director deployed the virtual safety car. However, he emerged unscathed and met with Alonso to smooth things over. Following the race, he called for automated safety cars to prevent similar incidents.

Come the midseason, Mercedes scored podium finishes in six consecutive races. Russell reeled off some of his best results in years, including a pole and podium in Montreal, his second career race victory at Spielberg (albeit after the first two drivers collided in front of him), a pole at Silverstone (followed by a mechanical retirement), and the first Formula One race win (at Spa) lost to a post-race disqualification since 1994, for which the team took responsibility. However, the media opined that he could have won the Canadian Grand Prix. Russell dominated the , qualifying on pole and leading 49 of 50 laps to take his third career victory. Russell again qualified on pole in Qatar after Max Verstappen was handed a grid penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly ahead of Russell, who was on an out-lap. Verstappen condemned Russell's appeals to the stewards for his penalty, stating he "lost all respect" for him, and warned Russell that he would overtake him at any cost —Russell claimed he said he would 'put him in the wall', which Verstappen denied. Verstappen overtook him into turn one, with Russell finishing fourth after two safety car periods.

Russell finished sixth in the Drivers' Championship, 22 points ahead of Hamilton. The team fell from second place to fourth in the Constructors' Championship, but scored four wins, quadrupling its total from the prior two seasons. Russell outscored Hamilton in two out of three seasons, recorded three wins to Hamilton's two, and outqualified Hamilton 39–29, while Hamilton scored 20 podiums to Russell's 14 and beat Russell on total points (697–695) after overtaking Russell on the final lap of his final race with Mercedes. After the 2024 season ended, Russell said that he "learned so much from [Hamilton] as a driver and a person,"

2025: Contract year Russell (pictured at the ) was partnered by rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli in . In , Russell faced a contract year. He also received a new teammate, eighteen-year-old academy driver Kimi Antonelli, who was hyped as "F1's next big thing." Defending World Constructors' Champions McLaren were heavily favoured to claim both titles, and did. At the start of the season, Russell opined that the MCL39 was fast enough to win every Grand Prix. McLaren dismissed Russell's prediction as hyperbolic, but it proceeded to dominate the constructors' race with seven 1–2 finishes and 12 wins in the first 18 races. In addition, McLaren's Lando Norris was crowned Drivers' Champion at the final race of the season. In Australia, he raced conservatively in intermittently rainy conditions and inherited third place when Oscar Piastri went off track. At Shanghai, Russell qualified second for the main race, splitting the two McLarens; strong teamwork from McLaren allowed Lando Norris to pass him at turn one, and Russell finished third. Russell bounced back in Bahrain: he fended off Norris in the closing laps to finish second—overcoming faulty brakes and electronics —and received widespread praise from the racing press for his adaptive performance. Struggling with tyre overheating, Mercedes laboured to fifth- and sixth-place finishes in Jeddah. At Miami, Russell was out-qualified by Antonelli for the first time, before an unconventional decision to start the Grand Prix on hard tyres was rewarded with a near-free pit stop under virtual safety car conditions, helping him finish third.

Mercedes began testing major upgrades during the Imola-Monaco-Barcelona tripleheader, but the team generally lacked the pace to compete for wins. The Mercedes W16's new suspension was particularly enigmatic: introduced at Imola, it was withdrawn after one middling race. The team reintroduced it at Montreal three rounds later, and Russell controlled the race from start to finish, picking up his maiden Formula One hat-trick (taking pole, winning, and setting the fastest lap). However, the improvement quickly faded, and at Spa-Francorchamps, Russell noted that the temperamental W16 was struggling even in relatively favourable conditions. Mercedes reverted to the older suspension at Hungary one round later, and Russell scored a podium after hunting down Charles Leclerc, whose car was dramatically fading. Aside from those two podiums, Russell's next-best finish was a chaotic fourth-place at Barcelona where he qualified fourth, lost two places at the start, undercut Lewis Hamilton, passed fourth-placed Max Verstappen in the closing laps after a safety car restart, and was hit by Verstappen on track near the end of the race, for which the Dutchman expressed regret. Verstappen received a time penalty for hitting Russell, which cost him nine championship points. Ironically, after a late-season charge, Verstappen closed most of the gap to Lando Norris in the Drivers' Championship, but lost the title by two points.

Following the summer break, Russell finished fifth at Monza. He then scored his seventh podium of the season at Baku with a second-place finish, having struggled with a respiratory illness all weekend. The next round at Singapore, Russell surprised commentators by taking pole by 0.182 seconds on a track where Mercedes was not expected to be competitive. After Verstappen (who started second) unsuccessfully gambled on used soft tyres at the start, Russell got out to a large lead and cruised to victory. The team reportedly raised his salary to £30m/year, making him the third-highest-paid driver in Formula One after Verstappen and Hamilton. The team's focus shifted to 2026, and Russell scored one podium in the final six races, at Las Vegas, where he dealt with steering and tyre issues. It was his career-best ninth podium of the season.

Russell finished fourth in the Drivers' Championship with 319 points, 169 ahead of Antonelli. Mercedes returned to second in the Drivers' Championship. At the end of the season, Autosport ranked Russell the second-best driver in motorsport, between Verstappen and Álex Palou. The Daily Telegraph, The Race, The Athletic, and Autoevolution ranked Russell the second-best driver in Formula One, in each case behind Verstappen and ahead of title-winner Norris. In Formula One's official polls, the team principals ranked him fourth and the drivers ranked him third. Motor Sport ranked him fifth, although its writers considered slotting him ahead of Norris and Piastri.

2026: Title contender

Heading into a major regulation change, pundits and bookies predicted that Mercedes would have a strong season. Russell sought to manage expectations before the season, but at the season-opening , he took pole three-tenths of a second over teammate Antonelli and eight-tenths of a second over third-placed Isack Hadjar. Autosport called the margin "staggering." He won the race after an extended battle with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in the opening laps. Russell claimed the net lead when Mercedes pitted under virtual safety car on lap 12 and Ferrari stayed out, gambling for a second safety car later in the race. That gamble failed, so Russell and Antonelli nursed their tyres for 46 laps and cruised to a 1–2 finish. With the win, Russell claimed the Drivers' Championship lead for the first time in his career.

At Shanghai, Russell's fortunes began taking a serious turn for the worse, to his teammate Antonelli's benefit. During the sprint race, the Australia pattern repeated, and Russell and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton traded the lead six times in the first five laps before Hamilton's tyres faded. However, at the Grand Prix, Russell lost pole to Antonelli after technical issues in qualifying. He spent much of the race in traffic with the Ferraris, and finished second, while Antonelli eventually reached clear air and won comfortably. Antonelli then seized the championship lead at Suzuka, where Russell's race was marred by setup and electronic issues and an ill-timed pit stop. At Miami, Russell beat Antonelli in the sprint, but the Italian beat him on merit in the Grand Prix. Russell hoped to bounce back at Montreal. He won the sprint after a race-long duel with Antonelli, and looked to repeat the feat in the Grand Prix, again repeating a duel with his teammate, but retired from the lead with an engine failure. Now 43 points behind his teammate, things went from bad to worse at Monaco, where Russell failed to score at all after a disappointing qualifying, a self-inflicted time penalty, and a team-inflicted drive-through penalty, ultimately finishing in twelfth. Ultimately, the bookmakers' title favourite at the start of the season found himself in third place after the conclusion of the race, 68 points behind Antonelli and two points behind Hamilton.

Russell began clawing back at Barcelona. He was the leading driver in two out of three practice sessions and took pole position, but his luck was alternately bad and good: Hamilton seized the lead and won after Russell (again) pitted right before a virtual safety car, and, late into the race, Antonelli passed Russell after Mercedes accidentally changed Russell's race setup during a pit stop. However, Russell still picked up 18 points on Antonelli, who retired with an engine failure. Russell's stars aligned at Spielberg; after running behind Antonelli in two out of three practice sessions, Russell converted his pole position to a dominating second race win of the season; in doing so, he took second in the Drivers' Championship back from Hamilton. Antonelli qualified fourth after misreading the yellow flag signal during his final qualifying lap, and was unlucky himself to pit right before a virtual safety car. Silverstone went similarly to Barcelona: Antonelli beat Russell in the sprint race and was on pace to win the Grand Prix, while Russell's race seemed ruined after a puncture forced yet another pit stop before a virtual safety car. However, Russell finished second, passing Lewis Hamilton by gambling (correctly) that the race would end under safety car conditions. Antonelli initially fell to ninth after part of his car's bodywork broke, and a time penalty dropped him out of the points. His fortunes tumbled once more at Belgium, where he qualified fourth to Antonelli's pole. During the opening lap of the Grand Prix, he was hit by Hamilton on the run to Les Combes, beaching him and forcing him to retire. The contact also inflicted damage to his Mercedes' bodywork. Having began the weekend 25 points behind Antonelli in the Drivers' Championship, his younger teammate won the Grand Prix to extend his advantage, 50 points ahead; he himself dropped to third behind Hamilton. Following the race, Russell did not put the blame for his retirement on Hamilton, who received a penalty for the incident. He stated that the contact was a racing incident and criticised an electrical issue that diminished his engine's power and disallowed battery deployment across Eau Rouge, leaving him vulnerable to other drivers going across the Kemmel Straight, reiterating his criticisms from his team radio message shortly following the incident.

2027 Russell and Antonelli are contracted to remain at Mercedes for the 2027 season. He has specifically been noted for controlling cars that are unstable when entering corners. Jolyon Palmer notes that Russell takes particularly wide exits to generate as much speed as possible, and said that Russell's precise car control allows him to survive risky turns. Russell's style takes advantage of high-grip tracks and high-downforce cars.

Russell's racing has been described as "analytical" and "situational," and he adapts his driving to track and car conditions. In his junior and early career, Russell's smooth driving style was compared to that of Jenson Button. Even so, compared to his former teammate Lewis Hamilton, Russell braked earlier, turned later, and "carrie more speed through the corner and exiting it."

During the 2024 season, the racing press suggested that Russell's style might be a better fit for the ground effect cars F1 was using at the time than Hamilton's. Mark Hughes added that Mercedes's successful midseason upgrades accentuated this F1-wide trend. most notably Spa 2021 (second) and Sochi 2021 (third). He outqualified teammates Robert Kubica and Nicholas Latifi 57 out of 59 times. Russell acquired the nickname "Mr. Saturday" for his Williams qualifying feats,

At Mercedes, Russell became the only teammate in Lewis Hamilton's career (Hamilton being Formula One's all-time leader in pole positions) to outqualify him head-to-head during their time as teammates (39–29). Although Hamilton outqualified Russell 13–9 in their first season together, Russell reached parity in 2023 and beat Hamilton 19–5 in 2024,

Racecraft According to Karun Chandhok, Russell "is generally one of the cleanest racers" in F1. Several drivers have noted Russell's clean racing on track, including teammate Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. In addition, at the 2022 British Grand Prix, Russell jumped out of his car to check on Zhou Guanyu following a major first-lap crash, even though it triggered his own retirement from the race. (The crash occurred after Pierre Gasly and Russell collided at the start of the race, bumping Russell into Zhou. ) However, after Russell questioned Charles Leclerc's defensive tactics during the 2023 British Grand Prix, Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur noted that Russell had used similar tactics to defend his position in prior races, explaining that "that's life" in Formula One.

Russell's racecraft has received some criticism, as Russell has not always converted high grid placements into high finishes. As a rookie, Russell was plagued by poor starts; that year, "he started lap two behind [teammate Robert] Kubica 11 times despite his qualifying superiority." More broadly, it took Russell two and a half seasons to score his first points at Williams. The Race responded that Russell's race day struggles at Williams were primarily the fault of the car, reasoning that Russell's strong grid placements at Williams were "in a constant battle against regression to the mean," and it was "inevitable that his Sunday results [were] less impressive."

Russell's tyre management has alternately been praised and criticised. He was praised for his tyre management at Williams. His tyre management received renewed praise during the 2024 season, following strong performances at Spa, Austin, and Monaco.

Although Russell prioritized consistency during his first season with Mercedes, he began taking greater risks in the following seasons, and committed several high-profile mistakes, notably during the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix, where Motor Sport thought he botched Mercedes's first real chance at a win since 2022. Following that race, Russell admitted that he "need to dial down the risk/reward [ratio] of how hard I'm driving," but explained that "I'd prefer finishing P6 every race and having two victories rather than finishing P5, P4, P3 every race and not get the race victory." He picked up two victories later that season. His season was praised for its consistency, with The Race remarking that Russell was "the only driver who made fewer significant errors than [Max] Verstappen in 2025." He tied with Verstappen again at the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix, this time for P3.

At the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, Russell became the sixth driver in Formula One history to lose a race win by disqualification.

Other ventures

Since 2021, Russell has served as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA), the Formula One drivers' trade union. His primary role at the GPDA is to relay the paddock's concerns about safety, racing quality, and the junior driver pipeline to the GPDA's full-time personnel.

The GB4 Championship awards the George Russell Pole Position Cup to the driver who takes the most pole positions in a given season.

Like many Formula One drivers, Russell has participated in the Formula 1: Drive to Survive television show. The show's coverage of Russell has primarily focused on his efforts to join and stay at Mercedes. The fourth season (2022) traces his efforts to obtain the second Mercedes seat for 2022, when Valtteri Bottas's contract expired, and includes a scene in which Toto Wolff informs Russell of his promotion, which Motor Sport thought was staged for the cameras. The seventh season (2025) details Russell's efforts to earn a leadership role at Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton announced his departure for Ferrari, and suggested that Russell secured his place in Mercedes by winning the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, when in reality, he was disqualified from that race. Russell was also a featured narrator in the episode about the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix. In 2024, Russell said that while he understands some "people are upset that everything is dramatized" in the show, he accepts the show's style as long as it draws new fans into the sport.

Personal life Since 2020, Russell has been in a relationship with Carmen Montero Mundt; The couple announced their enagement on 9 August 2026. He moved to Monaco in 2022. as well as Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, with whom he and Albon streamed racing games on Twitch during the COVID-19 pandemic. Russell said that Albon helped him get into a top karting team, He is also friends with Fernando Alonso, who has called him a "future world champ".

Apart from Formula One, Russell enjoys padel and free-diving. He is a fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, where his father is a season-ticket holder. He was a special guest at Molineux in 2021.

Russell is vocal about mental health issues. He works with a psychologist and claims that it helps him perform better on track.

Complete CIK-FIA Karting European Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Racing record Racing career summary Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position 2014 BRDC Formula 4 Championship Lanan Racing 24 5 3 4 11 483 1st Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Koiranen GP 12 0 0 0 1 123 4th Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 2 0 0 0 0 — NC† Tech 1 Racing 2 1 1 1 1 2015 FIA Formula 3 European Championship Carlin 33 1 0 0 3 203 6th Masters of Formula 3 1 0 0 0 1 2nd 2016 FIA Formula 3 European Championship HitechGP 30 2 3 3 10 264 3rd Macau Grand Prix 1 0 1 0 0 7th 2017 GP3 Series ART Grand Prix 15 4 4 5 7 220 1stFormula One Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 TeamTest driverFormula One Sahara Force India F1 TeamTest driver 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship ART Grand Prix 24 7 5 6 11 287 1stFormula One Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 TeamReserve driverFormula One Sahara Force India F1 TeamTest driver 2019 Formula One ROKiT Williams Racing 21 0 0 0 0 0 20th 2020 Formula One Williams Racing 16 0 0 0 0 3 18th Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team 1 0 0 1 0 2021 Formula One Williams Racing 22 0 0 0 1 16 15th 2022Formula One Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team 22 1 1 4 8 275 4th 2023 Formula One Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team 22 0 0 1 2 175 8th 2024 Formula One Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team 24 2 4 2 4 245 6th 2025 Formula One Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team 24 2 2 3 9 319 4th 2026 Formula One Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team * *Source:

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Pos Points 2014 Koiranen GP IMO1 IMO2 PAU1 PAU2 RBR1 RBR2 SPA1 SPA2 MNZ1 MNZ2 MUG1 MUG2 JER1 JER2 4th 123Source:

Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Macau Grand Prix results Year Team Car Qualifying Quali Race Main race 2016 HitechGP Dallara F312 1st 5th 7th

Complete GP3 Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pos Points 2017 ART Grand Prix CATFEA CATSPR RBRFEA RBRSPR SILFEA SILSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR JERFEA JERSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 1st 220

Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 222324 DC Points ART Grand Prix BHRFEA BHRSPR BAKFEA BAKSPR CATFEA CATSPR MONFEA MONSPR LECFEA LECSPR RBRFEA RBRSPR SILFEA SILSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SOCFEA SOCSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 1st 287

Complete Formula One results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. Did not finish but was classified, as he completed more than 90% of the race distance. Season still in progress.