© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
As George Russell prepares to make his full-time Mercedes debut, he lists his four most difficult F1 moments, which “moulded” him into “a stronger driver”.
In a recent interview George Russell was asked about his most difficult moments in Formula 1 so far.
One of the moments the young Briton mentioned is the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix, when he dropped out of the points late in the race. It would have been his first Formula 1 point and Williams’ first point since the 2019 German Grand Prix.
“We made a really strong start, and then there was the incident, and I was actually running in the points for the majority of the race,” Russell told Autosport.
“I think I was in P10 for the majority of the time. And then [Charles] Leclerc has to pit for some reason, he wasn’t catching up, so I was in P9 during the red flag for [Lance] Stroll’s incident.
“Then I made a bad start, and that felt like it was our one opportunity of the year, because we didn’t really have opportunities up to that point.
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“It was like the opportunity just went and we’ll never get the opportunity. It was our one chance. That was a really tough one after that race.”
Russell also picked the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix when he crashed behind the Safety Car while running in P10.
Then he picked the “emotional rollercoaster” that was the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix. The Briton was picked as a substitute for Lewis Hamilton, who tested positive for COVID-19.
It was a brilliant performance from him and he was on his way to his first F1 victory, before a pit stop tyre mix-up, and later a puncture, dropped him down to P10.
“Everything that went on that week, the spotlight being shone on me, the constant scrutiny on how I’m performing, the amount of work that has gone in just to get the seat fixed and learn all of their procedures, working with the engineers getting buttons on the steering wheel, understanding the car – that was a hell of a lot of be going through.
“That was draining just in itself, and obviously the race all looked pretty hunky dory and everything was under control at one point. For it to just all disappear was pretty difficult.”
Lastly, George mentioned the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, when he collided with Valtteri Bottas, and drew criticism from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
“These are the four moments in my three years that stick out to me that were pretty brutal emotionally.
“It was just learning how to deal with that. I look back on Bahrain with no frustration or no hard feelings.
“It’s something that I guess has moulded me into a stronger driver,” Russell concluded.
