THE BOY WHO WOULD BE KING
SLUMPED DISCONSOLATELY AGAINST a grassy bank at Imola while marshals shepherded his damaged Williams off the track, George Russell could not believe what he had just done. Having accumulated a near-spotless record through his Formula 1 career to date, he’d just committed one of the biggest don’ts in racing: shunting behind the Safety Car.
Running 10th and eyeing the prospect of scoring his first F1 point, Russell pushed too hard while trying to get warmth into his tyres before the restart, causing his Williams FW43 to spear left into the wall at the entry to Acque Minerali.
“It was such an amateur mistake,” says Russell. “I felt just pure frustration and annoyance at the error I just made. It was such a schoolboy error.”
The Imola blunder was all the more glaring because of the reputation Russell has built since making his F1 debut at the start of 2019. As part of Mercedes’ junior stable, he theoretically holds the keys to a very long and successful F1 career – provided he can continue to demonstrate growth and improvement. For while Mercedes is clearly satisfied with its current driver line-up, it needs to maintain a succession plan for when a vacancy arises, and that means keeping young talents such as Russell in play.
Despite the limitations of Williams’ cars in the past two years, Russell has made a name for himself as a future star by regularly outstripping the capabilities of his machinery. At the time of writing (pre-Abu Dhabi GP), he has only been outqualified once by
