Heat is on but cool George Russell relishes role as Mercedes’ main man

SINGAPORE – Every Formula One driver’s path to one of the 20 coveted seats on the grid is unique. For George Russell, it began with an e-mail he sent in 2014, when he was just 16.

The recipient was Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. Russell’s request then was bold but simple: He wanted a shot at racing in an F1 car.

Now, a decade later, the boy who wanted to race in the pinnacle of motor sports finds himself in one of the hottest seats in F1. With seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton

moving to Ferrari in 2025,

Russell is ready to step into the spotlight as Mercedes’ No. 1 driver.

The pressure is on for the team’s next in line, but the 26-year-old Briton, who will be joined by Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli next season, told The Straits Times that he will not alter his approach to racing.

He said: “It doesn’t really change how I go about my business. Because my job is to put my helmet on and drive as fast as possible and that doesn’t matter if I’ve got a seven-time world champion or a rookie as my teammate.

“For sure, the team will be leaning on me a little more than they have in the past, but my job is to race the car as fast as possible.”

Clad in an orange Puma x Mercedes AMG Motorsport shirt and matching shoes, Russell was speaking on the sidelines of a fan meet and greet on Sept 18 at Puma’s flagship store at 313@Somerset, where over 100 supporters gathered outside screaming his name to get his attention.

He welcomes the responsibility at this stage of his career.

Reflecting on his progress, he said: “It has been a long journey. It will be my seventh year in F1 next year and my fourth with Mercedes. I definitely feel ready to fight for a lot more and... fight for the championship.”

Since his rookie season with Williams in 2019, Russell has been touted as the next big thing in F1 – particularly after an impressive outing at the Sakhir Grand Prix in December 2020.

With Hamilton testing positive for Covid-19, Russell swopped his Williams for his compatriot’s Mercedes for the weekend.

To fit into the cockpit, Russell had to wear race boots one size too small, but he still went on to qualify second and was on course for his maiden grand prix win, before tyre misfortune denied him top spot on the podium on his Mercedes audition. Despite the ninth-placed finish, the former Mercedes junior team driver’s progression was hard to ignore and by 2022, he was racing alongside Hamilton for the Silver Arrows.

Russell has since won two grands prix, in Brazil and Austria in 2022

and 2024

respectively, and racked up 14 podium finishes.

Noting that “winning a championship is the ultimate dream”, he added: “It is like climbing a ladder. If you want to get to the top, every single step is the most important one. Through any driver’s career, every step you are climbing your way. In this sport, there is an infinite end.

“I want to win a title but when you achieve that, you want to win two, three or four. You want to win more and more, you are climbing an infinite ladder.”

And while he is still climbing the rungs to the top, Russell, who is currently seventh in the drivers’ standings ahead of the Sept 20-22 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix, is looking to exorcise the ghosts of

the 2023 race.

Then, he was poised for a podium finish after qualifying second. However, in a dramatic final-lap mishap while pushing to catch race leaders Carlos Sainz of Ferrari and McLaren’s Lando Norris, he clipped the wall at Turn 10, sending his car into the barriers and ending his challenge.

Visibly emotional after the race, Russell had described the crash as “heartbreaking” and “the most horrendous feeling in the world”.

He added: “Mistakes happen, but they make you stronger. You learn and move on. It doesn’t change my approach one single bit. It is the past, live in the present and look to the future.”

On Sept 22, Russell will have a chance for redemption at the Marina Bay circuit, and the boy who once dreamt of being an F1 driver will now dream of his first title in Singapore.