Nationality: British
Birthday: 15 February 1998
Current team: Mercedes
Previous teams: Williams
Number: 63
Strengths: Outright pace, consistency, team player, set-ups
Weaknesses: Mistakes under pressure, wheel-to-wheel collisions, starts
Strongest tracks: Spain, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil
Weakest tracks: Japan
Statistics
Grand Prix wins: 3
Pole Positions: 5
Fastest laps: 8
Podiums: 19
World Championships: 0
F1 teammate record H2H
Total Q record: 99-34
Total R record: 83-49
| Teammate | Q record | R record |
| Antonelli (2025) | 6-1 | 7-0 |
| Hamilton (2022-24) | 38-30 | 34-34 |
| Latifi (2020-21) | 36-2 | 25-11 |
| Bottas (2020) | 0-1 | 0-1 |
| Kubica (2019) | 19-0 | 17-3 |
Pre-F1 championship results
Won Formula 2 (2018)
Won GP3 (2017)
3rd in European F3 (2016)
Won BRDC Formula 4 (2014)
Career analysis
George Russell has to be considered one of F1’s fastest drivers. He had an incredible junior career, winning GP3 and F2 in his first attempts, and he dominated his teammates at Williams.
At the end of 2020, we got a taste of what Russell would look like in a top car. Replacing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for a one-off, he was leading the Sakhir GP and was almost certainly on course for victory until bad luck hit him twice.
He had to wait until 2022 before becoming a permanent driver at Mercedes. In his first season at Brackley, he performed very well and won his first race in the penultimate round. 2023 was a bit of a letdown as Russell never really settled into the W14 and had several races where he made mistakes under pressure, particularly when fighting wheel-to-wheel with other drivers, something that has proven to be his major weakness. At the 2023 Singapore GP, he crashed out while fighting for the win.
Russell matured in 2024 and had an excellent season, clearly outperforming Hamilton in qualifying sessions, and added two race wins to his resume. He appears to be among motorsport’s finest when it comes to pure pace, probably only topped by Leclerc, Norris and Verstappen.
Going forward, Russell is expected to be the lead driver of Mercedes as youngster Kimi Antonelli settles in. Russell will first and foremost have to beat Antonelli comfortably, and if Mercedes produces a car capable of fighting for a championship, he will have to improve under pressure as he battles the alpha drivers of F1’s other teams.