23-year-old George Russell will drive alongside fellow Briton and Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes F1 from 2022. When news of the former’s deal with Mercedes broke out, fans couldn’t help but post about the young George Russell that grew up admiring the seven-time world champion. In an interview with La Gazzetta, Russell revealed the most emotional race he ever watched as a child.
But surprisingly, it’s not Lewis Hamilton!
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Russell reveals the most memorable GP he ever watched
The Gazzetta journalist asked him about the most emotional Grand Prix he remembers to have watched on TV. Russell replied, “The 2009 Australian GP, the first GP won by Jenson Button with Brawn GP. I got up at dawn to turn on the TV, in my bedroom in the dark.”
Russell was 11 years old at the time, and Jenson Button later went on to win the title in 2009 with Brawn GP.
George Russell has a promising future ahead of him
Russell has been a huge asset to the Williams team. Even though they were really slow in 2019, and 2020, Russell managed to out-qualify his teammate in the Williams 100% of the time. He made huge contributions to the team as they slowly started climbing up the grid, and by the end of the 2020 season, the Briton had managed to regularly put the Williams into Q2 during the Qualis.
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Russell came to be known as Mr. Saturday, thanks to his blistering qualifying pace. In fact, he is probably one of the best in the grid at hooking up a single lap.
This talent helped him achieve his first-ever podium for Williams when he qualified P2 in the Belgian Grand Prix. The race didn’t go ahead due to the rain, four laps were completed under the safety car and the results were classified, meaning that Russell had finished P2 with the Williams team.
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Now he’s moving on to bigger things. Mercedes have a championship-winning car, and Russell has already shown the world at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix what he can do when given the opportunity. All eyes will be on George when he takes over the Mercedes seat next year.