‘I’D ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO GO AGAINST LEWIS’
PHOTOGRAPHY
GEORGE RUSSELL cuts a rather relaxed figure. The 23-year-old is leaning against a fence lining one side of the narrow pathway between the Williams motorhome and the edge of the Monaco Grand Prix paddock. Beyond is another small walkway, and then it’s the harbour, filled with excess and glistening in the sun.
This is how Autosport finds Russell. He’s just finished a TV interview, the Wednesday before the race given over to the necessary distractions of a Formula 1 driver’s life. He’s chatty, friendly and calm. We’re struck by his general sense of ease – at one point as we’re setting up, a fan passes him a boat fender to sign. “I hope that’s waterproof!” he laughs (hand sanitiser quickly provided once this exchange has finished, such is the way of the world in 2021).
Russell last featured as Autosport’s sole cover star in August 2020. Then, we’d chatted via Zoom as he sat in the Silverstone paddock while we were confined to one of the unused TV commentary boxes overlooking the start/finish line. Back then, talk was of honing his craft and staying grounded. Russell still exuded confidence – he’s got a demanding reputation, yet one that extends to his own expectations of his performances – but the 2020 Sakhir GP changed all of that. It was a self-assured drive befitting a driver who knows his own talent and potential, who seized his moment, even if things went terribly wrong through no fault of his own.
The figure facing Autosport now is rather different from the agitated, angry Russell who strode furiously through the Tamburello gravel trap on lap 31 of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. He’d just climbed from his wrecked FW43B and marched over to remonstrate with the other driver involved in what was an enormous, and enormously expensive, crash. Valtteri Bottas more than held his nerve as Russell reached the cockpit
