George Russell regrets the decision made in Formula 1

With the fight between Ferrari and Red Bull for the top of the Formula 1 Drivers and Constructors’ championship, George Russell appears timidly in fifth place, who in his first year with Mercedes manages – for now – to get better performance from the car than Lewis Hamilton . His arrival, however, appears to have been somewhat late, as he himself acknowledged by saying this “in hindsight, three years of background driving was too long”.

It happens that the British, of great performance in the categories of trampolines and F1 driver trainers, began his career at Williams and Claire, the owner’s daughter and then head of the British team, convinced him to sign a contract that Russell now notes as long.

“I think when we signed with Williams in 2018, was a team that had just spent three years reaching the podium, finishing P3, P3, P5 in the constructors’ championship, and then had a bad year in 2018 where they ended up last. But we thought (Williams) was a team that could bounce back at that point and rejoin the competitive mix, third to fifth. So we all agreed that three years was a good time, fighting for points, maybe podiums, ”the 24-year-old began.

Now with his 128 points -in a tournament dominated by Max Verstappen with 208- and 19 more than seven-time champion Hamilton, he doesn’t see it the same way. “In hindsight, three years of driving alone at the back of the grid was too long. But unfortunately, Claire (Williams) did a good job in contract negotiations and there was no way out“, developing.

In the last episode of the podcast Beyond the grillRussell reviewed his career, where his rise in F1 came by dominating the 2018 Formula 2 championship with ART Grand Prix, scoring 287 points to 219 for runner-up Lando Norris, current McLaren driver, who promoted him as Mercedes junior driver.

But it wasn’t until 2020 that he got into a Mercedes, when he replaced a coronavirus-infected Hamilton at the Sakhir Grand Prix, nor did he add his historic Williams podium at the Belgian GP until 2021. Similarly, Russell noted that getting into Mercedes two years ago would have been “incredibly difficult” as the car was designed for the seven-time British champion.

“But when I look at this in hindsight, I think joining Mercedes last year or even 2020 would have been incredibly difficult because confronting Lewis, when that car had evolved to fit his style of driving. he drove for many years and as such was his child. now it’s a new sheet of paper for everyoneeveryone is starting from scratch, so this was probably the right time. “

In 2022, the driver has already scored three podiums and points on all race weekends, with the exception of the British Grand Prix, where he retired after a high-speed crash on the first lap involving Zhou Guanyu. “Toto (Wolff, the team manager) has always told me to keep doing my job on the right path., to continue doing what he was doing and would be in the car. And then of course we had Sakhir 2020 “, he reminded her.

“I think they always believed in me he concluded. And I feel so lucky to hear that because they’re never trying to get me in trouble or test me to see if I fail. They want to make you grow; they want to make sure you reach your potential.