George William Russell (; born 15 February 1998) is a British racing driver, who competes in Formula One for Mercedes. Russell has won three Formula One Grands Prix across six seasons.
Born and raised in King's Lynn, Norfolk, Russell began competitive kart racing aged seven. After a successful karting career—culminating in back-to-back victories at the junior direct-drive Karting European Championship in 2011 and 2012—Russell graduated to junior formulae. He won his first title at the 2014 BRDC F4 Championship. He then won the 2017 GP3 Series and the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship back-to-back with ART, becoming the fifth driver to win the GP2/Formula 2 championship in their rookie season and the second driver to win both titles in their respective rookie seasons.
A member of the Mercedes Junior Team since 2017, Russell signed for Williams in 2019 to partner Robert Kubica, making his Formula One debut at the Australian Grand Prix. He substituted for Lewis Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix for Mercedes, but was denied his maiden win due to a team error and a puncture after leading the majority of the race. Russell scored his maiden podium at the curtailed 2021 Belgian Grand Prix with Williams. In 2022, Russell replaced Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes to partner Hamilton; in his first season, Russell achieved his maiden pole position in Hungary and his maiden win in São Paulo, finishing fourth in the World Drivers' Championship. After a winless season for Mercedes in 2023, Russell won the Austrian and Las Vegas Grands Prix in 2024, and became the first driver in 30 years to have been disqualified from a race win at the Belgian Grand Prix.
As of the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Russell has achieved three race wins, five pole positions, eight fastest laps and 15 podiums in Formula One. Russell is set to remain at Mercedes until at least the end of the 2025 season.
George Russell was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, to father Steve and mother Alison. His father ran a business selling seeds and pulses, which is now part of Archer Daniels Midland. Russell is the youngest of three siblings, including sister Cara and brother Benjy. He grew up in Tydd St Giles/Wisbech and Castle Rising. Russell attended Wisbech Grammar School, but shifted to homeschooling so that he could devote more time to his racing career.
Russell took up karting at the age of 7, catching the habit from his brother Benjy, a competitive karter who won the 2007 Super 1 National Kart Championship in the Rotax Max category. Russell picked up his number 63 from the kart his brother rented at the time.
At 18, Russell moved to Milton Keynes to be closer to his junior racing team.
Russell began karting in 2006 and progressed to the cadet class by 2009, becoming MSA British champion and British Open champion. In 2010 he moved to the Rotax Mini Max category where he became Super One British champion, Formula Kart Stars British champion, and also won the Kartmasters British Grand Prix. Russell graduated to the KF3 class in 2011, winning the SKUSA Supernationals title and becoming CIK-FIA European Champion, a title he successfully defended in 2012. In his final year of karting in 2013, Russell finished 19th in the KF1 CIK-FIA World Championship.
In 2014, Russell made his single-seater debut, simultaneously competing in BRDC Formula 4 (Lanan Racing) and Formula Renault 2.0 Alps (Koiranen GP). He won the former title, overtaking teammate Arjun Maini in the standings at the final race at Snetterton. As a reward, he was granted a GP3 test at Yas Marina.
Russell had a more difficult season in Formula Renault 2.0. Although he was initially supposed to race for Prema, Lance Stroll's father (Prema's part-owner and main funder) vetoed Russell from the team, even though Stroll was racing in Italian F4 and not Formula Renault. Russell found a landing spot with Koiranen, which dominated the season, scoring 423 points to Prema's 61. However, Russell was outshone by his Koiranen teammate Nyck de Vries (three years his elder), who won nine out of twelve races. Looking back, Russell said that Tech 1 Racing (his other option to replace Prema) would have been a better fit, but strongly praised de Vries, remarking that he "was always one of the very best," and that especially "in go-karting, he was the man to beat." Russell also raced as a guest in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, winning one race at Jerez with Tech 1.
At the end of the season, Russell won the Autosport BRDC Award after successfully testing Formula Two, DTM, and GT3 cars. At seventeen, he was the youngest-ever winner of the award; the BRDC lowered the entry age to accommodate him. He was also selected for the BRDC's SuperStars junior driver mentorship programme, where he was once again the youngest-ever selection.
Russell spent two years in European Formula Three, racing for Carlin in 2015 and Hitech GP in 2016. In 2015, he finished sixth, winning one race and collecting three podiums. He was second in the Rookies' Championship, behind Charles Leclerc, although fellow rookie Lance Stroll finished above him in the overall classification (the Rookies' Championship re-scores each race to remove non-rookies). He also finished second at the 2015 Masters of Formula 3 exhibition race, behind Antonio Giovinazzi.
In 2016, Prema Powerteam (which was still funded by the Stroll family) allegedly received special engines from Mercedes. Stroll cruised to the title, with Russell finishing third, behind Prema drivers Stroll and Maximilian Günther. Nonetheless, Mercedes was impressed by Russell's performances and signed him to its driver academy at the end of the season. After making it to Formula One, Russell questioned the fairness of the 2016 competition, stating that it was "almost laughable to see ... how wrong that championship was."
With financial help from Mercedes, Russell secured a drive with ART Grand Prix, GP3's dominant team, for the 2017 season. He won the title as a rookie, and ART swept the top four places in the standings. Russell scored four wins and seven podiums, finishing 79 points ahead of the second-placed Jack Aitken, and locked up the title with two races to go. Notable races included a dominant performance at Spa-Francorchamps (a win, a second place, two poles, and two fastest laps) and a close three-way battle at Monza.
ART promoted Russell to its Formula Two team for the 2018 season. In addition, Mercedes promoted Russell to first-team reserve driver, sharing duties with Pascal Wehrlein. The 2018 F2 grid was "possibly the strongest field of the [] decade", and featured several future F1 racers, including Lando Norris, Alexander Albon, Nyck de Vries, and Nicholas Latifi. Although Russell took several races to reach the top of the standings, he heated up at midseason, finishing either first or second in five out of six races. He won the title, finishing 68 points ahead of the second-placed Norris.
With his title, Russell became the fifth rookie champion of the GP2/F2 category (previously achieved by Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hülkenberg, and Charles Leclerc), the fourth driver to win the GP3/F3 and GP2/F2 titles in consecutive seasons (after Hamilton, Hülkenberg and Leclerc), and the second driver to win both of these titles as a rookie (after Leclerc). Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto subsequently matched each of these feats.
In October 2015, Russell drove a Formula One car for the first time, when he tested the McLaren MP4-26 at Silverstone as a prize for winning the 2014 Autosport BRDC Award.
Russell signed with the Mercedes Junior Team in early 2017, due to the high cost of racing in the junior categories. He had previously spent 2016 as a Mercedes simulator driver. In addition, he impressed Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff with a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation explaining why Wolff should sign him. Wolff "set hard targets" for Russell, asking him to win the GP3 and Formula 2 titles before progressing to Formula One.
As a Mercedes junior, Russell was given test drives with Mercedes and its engine customers. He began testing Mercedes cars in the 2017 season. In 2018, he tested for Mercedes and Force India-Mercedes.
Russell made his Grand Prix weekend debut at the end of the 2017 season, driving for Force India during free practice at the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix. Mercedes promoted him to first-team reserve driver in 2018.
In October 2018, Mercedes arranged for Russell to make his Formula One debut with engine customer Williams-Mercedes. He signed a three-year contract with Williams but remained a Mercedes test driver. He was partnered by Robert Kubica for the 2019 season and Nicholas Latifi in 2020 and 2021. His first appearance for Williams was at the 2018 post-season test at Yas Marina Circuit, driving the FW41. He made his Formula One race debut at the Australian Grand Prix, qualifying 19th and finishing 16th.
Russell's years at Williams were difficult. Mercedes had hoped that Williams would field a competitive car; as Russell later noted, Williams had finished no worse than fifth in the constructors' standings from 2015 to 2017. However, when Russell joined Williams, the team was well behind the rest of the field and did not produce a car that could reliably compete for points until 2021, Russell's final year with the team. The team was so strapped for cash that it considered replacing Russell with Kevin Magnussen during the 2020 season if Magnussen could find enough sponsor money to keep the team afloat. Due to his extended run at Williams, Russell is third on the list of most race starts in a career before scoring points, with 37. However, F1 insiders respected Russell's contributions in a difficult situation. The Formula One team principals ranked Russell the No. 6 driver of the 2020 season in their annual poll. In addition, Russell led Williams back to respectability in 2021, scoring 16 points and recording a rare podium for Williams.
In 2019, Williams struggled for form. In most races Kubica was Russell's only on-track competition: Russell did not finish ahead of a car from another team until round six, the Monaco Grand Prix. Russell also outqualified Kubica at all twenty-one races. His highest placement of the season was 11th at the rain-affected German Grand Prix, but Kubica overtook him in the closing laps, leaving him point-less for the season. He also finished 12th at the Brazilian Grand Prix, aided by a well-timed safety car. He finished 20th in the Drivers' Championship, scoring no points to Kubica's one.
Williams was more competitive on track in 2020, but it did not show up in the standings, as Williams did not score any points all year. However, Russell came close to scoring on several occasions, such as the Styrian Grand Prix (qualifying in 11th but falling to 16th after running into the gravel) the British Grand Prix (finishing 12th), the Tuscan Grand Prix (reaching 9th at one point before dropping back to 11th), and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix (crashing out from 10th place under safety car conditions).
Russell scored his first points at the Sakhir Grand Prix, following a surprise promotion to the Mercedes senior team when Lewis Hamilton tested positive for COVID-19. His performance at Sakhir was widely acclaimed by both Mercedes and the media. He narrowly missed out on pole position, overtook teammate Valtteri Bottas at the first corner, and led the majority of the race. However, Russell was forced to pit twice in-a-row when the Mercedes pit crew accidentally fitted Bottas' front tyres on his car, following a radio failure. He overtook Bottas a second time, recovered to second place, and was closing in on race leader Sergio Pérez, when a puncture forced him to pit again with ten laps to go. Russell finished ninth, picking up two points for the finish and one point for the fastest lap. After the race, he remarked that the result "really bloody hurt". Russell returned to Williams for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which he described as a "strange feeling". He donned a special helmet to honor the Williams family, who had sold the team in October. He finished 18th in the Drivers' Championship, scoring 3 points, although none were for Williams.
Following Russell's strong performances in 2020, Mercedes looked into finding him a new team for the 2021 season, but Williams declined to release him from his contract. In addition, the media speculated that he would replace Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes in 2022 once their respective contracts expired. The two aspirants clashed at the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, when Russell found himself alongside Bottas on lap 30. He attempted to overtake Bottas, but drove onto a wet patch and lost control of his car, crashing into Bottas and causing a double retirement. Russell initially blamed the incident on Bottas, walking over to Bottas after the crash and slapping his helmet (Bottas responded with a middle finger), and accusing him of "trying to kill [them] both". However, Russell later retracted his claims and apologised to Bottas and Williams. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff acknowledged that Bottas should not have been side by side with a Williams in the first place, but reserved the bulk of his criticism for Russell, a Mercedes junior who had just taken out a Mercedes.
Despite his DNF at Imola, Russell helped Williams to its best season in several years. He came close to scoring points at a number of races, including the Azerbaijan Grand Prix (gearbox failure following a restart in 15th place); the French Grand Prix (rising from 19th to 12th without help from driver retirements); the Styrian Grand Prix (hydraulic failure after qualifying in 10th); and the British Grand Prix (12th place). At the Austrian Grand Prix, Russell qualified in 8th place, Williams' highest grid position since 2017. He was still in 10th near the end of the race, but after a ten-lap defensive battle, Fernando Alonso passed him with four laps to go. After the race, Alonso consoled Russell with a hug. The Spaniard ruefully explained that "I was hoping it was anyone but him. ... He will have more opportunities hopefully for podiums or wins in the future."
Russell scored his first points for Williams two races later at the Hungarian Grand Prix, moving from 17th on the grid to 8th. Following the race, Mercedes agreed to promote Russell to the senior team for the 2022 season. In the very next race, Russell collected his maiden podium at the Belgian Grand Prix under unusual circumstances. He qualified in second after a rain-affected Saturday, the first front-row start for Williams since the 2017 Italian Grand Prix. The downpour continued into race day, so the race director ran the race for two laps under safety car conditions before calling it off, handing Russell his first Formula One podium finish. Russell also scored points at the Italian Grand Prix (9th) and the Russian Grand Prix (10th, after qualifying in 3rd). He placed 15th in the Drivers' Championship, scoring 16 points to Latifi's 7.
Russell joined Mercedes in 2022 and was paired with seven-time World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton from 2022 to 2024. His timing was unfortunate, as the move coincided with a regulations change that ended Mercedes' dominance of the sport. The team placed third in 2022, second in 2023, and fourth in 2024 (although it scored four wins that year). Hamilton left Mercedes for Ferrari after the 2024 season.
During Russell's three years with Hamilton, the drivers were evenly matched on track. Russell outscored Hamilton in two out of three seasons, recorded three wins to Hamilton's two, and outqualified Hamilton 39–29, while Hamilton scored 20 podiums to Russell's 14 and beat Russell on total points (697–695) after overtaking Russell on the final lap of his final race with Mercedes. After the 2024 season ended, Russell said that he "learned so much from [] Lewis as a driver and a person," and wrote on his personal website that Hamilton "is not only the greatest driver of all time," but also "the type of person that every racing driver should aspire to be."
2022 and 2023 were difficult years for Mercedes, whose new aerodynamics concept performed very well in simulations but was difficult to drive in real life. The team scored one victory in two years.
Russell and Hamilton spent the first nine races of the 2022 season testing experimental parts for the Mercedes car. The drivers swapped testing duties every race, although team boss Toto Wolff said that Hamilton was unlucky because the experiments assigned to him backfired. Despite the unfortunate season, Russell checked off several career firsts in 2022, including his first podium in a full-length race at Melbourne; his first pole position at Hungary; and his first Grand Prix and sprint race victories at Interlagos. He finished fourth in the Drivers' Championship, outscoring teammate Hamilton by 35 points. He outscored Hamilton by 34 points in the first nine races and by 1 point during the rest of the season.
2023 was another difficult year for Mercedes and for Russell in particular. After some promising performances at the start of the season (leading the Australian Grand Prix until an untimely red flag and scoring a podium at Barcelona), Russell's results declined in the second half of the season for a variety of reasons, including a record seven pit stops in one race (Zandvoort), an accidental last-lap crash (Singapore), an over-aggressive strategy call (Suzuka), and Hamilton colliding into him after a front-row start (Lusail).
Russell salvaged a measure of pride with a third-place finish at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which clinched second place in the Constructors' Championship for Mercedes. He finished eighth in the Drivers' Championship, the lowest for a Mercedes driver since 2012, and 59 points behind Hamilton. After the Abu Dhabi race, Russell commented that he had "let the side down a couple of times this year", but that it meant "a huge amount" to help the team finish second. Although he called his own season "a complete disaster", Mercedes extended his contract until the end of 2025.
For the 2024 season, Mercedes fundamentally changed its design concept. The new Mercedes W15 was fast but inconsistent, hard on tyres, and difficult to set up properly. Although the team was not competitive until midseason, Russell commented that the staff was "making progress" behind the scenes.
At midseason, Mercedes scored podium finishes in six consecutive races. Russell reeled off some of his best results in years, including a pole and podium in Montreal, his second career race victory at Spielberg (albeit after the first two drivers collided in front of him), a pole at Silverstone (followed by a mechanical retirement), and the first Formula One race win (at Spa) lost to a post-race disqualification since 1994, for which the team took responsibility. However, the media opined that he could have won the Canadian Grand Prix.
The team's form became more inconsistent as the year went on, but Russell challenged for wins at several races. At the São Paulo Grand Prix, Russell was leading the race until Mercedes ordered him to pit for new tyres right before a red-flag gave his competitors a free tyre change. Russell dominated the Las Vegas Grand Prix, qualifying on pole and leading 49 of 50 laps to take his third career victory. Russell again qualified on pole in Qatar after Max Verstappen was handed a grid penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly ahead of Russell, who was on an out-lap. Verstappen condemned Russell's appeals to the stewards for his penalty, stating he "lost all respect" for him, and warned Russell that he would overtake him at any cost—Russell claimed he said he would 'put him in the wall', which Verstappen denied. Verstappen overtook him into turn one, with Russell finishing fourth after two safety car periods.
Russell finished sixth in the Drivers' Championship, 22 points ahead of Hamilton.
Russell is set to be partnered by academy driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli for 2025, following Hamilton's departure to Ferrari.
Throughout his career, Russell has consistently been praised for his qualifying pace. At Williams, the Briton drove an unimpressive car to unexpectedly high grid placements on several occasions, most notably Spa 2021 (second) and Sochi 2021 (third). He outqualified teammates Robert Kubica and Nicholas Latifi 57 out of 59 times. Russell acquired the nickname "Mr. Saturday" for his Williams qualifying feats, although he has downplayed the nickname, explaining that the goal is to win on Sunday.
At Mercedes, Russell became the only teammate in Lewis Hamilton's career (Hamilton being Formula One's all-time leader in pole positions) to outqualify him head-to-head during their time as teammates (39–29). Although Hamilton outqualified Russell 13–9 in their first season together, Russell reached parity in 2023 and beat Hamilton 19–5 in 2024, becoming one of only two teammates (the other being 2016 champion Nico Rosberg) to outqualify him in a single season.
According to Karun Chandhok, Russell "is generally one of the cleanest racers" in F1. Several drivers have noted Russell's clean racing on track, including teammate Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. In addition, at the 2022 British Grand Prix, Russell jumped out of his car to check on Zhou Guanyu following a major first-lap crash, even though it triggered his own retirement from the race. (The crash occurred after Pierre Gasly collided with Russell at the start of the race, bumping Russell into Zhou.) However, Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur questioned Russell's style of defense following a 2023 clash with Charles Leclerc.
Russell's racecraft has received some criticism, as Russell has not always converted high grid placements into high finishes. As a rookie, Russell was plagued by poor starts; that year, "he started lap two behind Kubica 11 times despite his qualifying superiority." More broadly, it took Russell two and a half seasons to score his first points at Williams. The Race responded that Russell's race day struggles at Williams were primarily the fault of the car, reasoning that Russell's strong grid placements at Williams were "in a constant battle against regression to the mean," and it was "inevitable that his Sunday results [were] less impressive." In addition, while Russell was praised for his tyre management at Williams, he overextended his tyres on several occasions at Mercedes, contributing to some disappointing results. Russell's tyre management received renewed praise during the 2024 season, following strong performances at Spa, Austin, and Monaco.
Although Russell prioritized consistency during his first season with Mercedes, he began taking greater risks in the following seasons, and committed several high-profile mistakes, notably during the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix, where Motor Sport thought he botched Mercedes' first real chance at a win since 2022. Following that race, Russell admitted that he "need[s] to dial down the risk/reward [ratio] of how hard I'm driving," but explained that "I'd prefer finishing P6 every race and having two victories rather than finishing P5, P4, P3 every race and not get the race victory." He picked up two victories later that season.
Russell holds the record for most pit stops in a single race (7 at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix), shared with Lance Stroll, Liam Lawson, and Alain Prost. Russell, Stroll, and Lawson all tied Prost's record at the same race.
Russell and Max Verstappen are one of two sets of drivers to tie for P1 in qualifying in Formula One history, at the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix. Previously, Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen tied in qualifying at the 1997 European Grand Prix.
At the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, Russell became one of six drivers in Formula One history to lose a race win by disqualification. The other five drivers are all Formula One World Drivers' Champions: James Hunt, Nelson Piquet, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, and Michael Schumacher.
In March 2021, Russell was appointed as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA), the Formula One drivers' trade union. He replaced Romain Grosjean, who had left Formula One for IndyCar. As a director, Russell's primary role is to relay the paddock's concerns about safety, racing quality, and the junior driver pipeline to the GPDA's full-time personnel.
In March 2022, Russell agreed to lend his name to the GB4 Championship's pole position trophy. The George Russell Pole Position Cup is awarded to the driver who takes the most pole positions that season. Russell had previously won the Jack Cavill Pole Position Cup during his title-winning campaign in BRDC Formula 4 in 2014.
Since 2020, Russell has been dating Carmen Montero Mundt, a former business student at the University of Westminster. The couple live together in Monaco. The two were introduced by mutual friends over "dinner and drinks" in London. He moved to Monaco in 2022.
Russell is a fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, where his father is a season-ticket holder. He was a special guest at Molineux in 2021.
Russell has been known to be vocal about mental health issues and has often spoken about his own experiences seeing a psychologist to improve his on-track performance and off-track wellbeing.
Russell has an active social media presence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he joined with fellow Formula One drivers Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, and Alex Albon to stream racing games on Twitch.
† As Russell was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
HitechGP
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. † Did not finish but was classified, as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.
Original Wikipedia article last retrieved on 12 December 2024.