George Russell has moved from the back of the grid with Williams to the top of the pack with Mercedes F1 this season, however according to him the biggest change is not directly related to performance, but rather to the workload on the marketing side.
Indeed, if Russell does not think he has changed his approach to race weekends, on the other hand he recognizes that his amount of off-track work, on the promotional side, has increased.
“You could say that it has intensified a bit, mainly on the marketing side”reveals the Briton.
“On the track side, from my preparations for a race weekend and all about performance, there was no change, because for me I was doing absolutely everything I could at Williams, to get to the maximum. And that’s still what I do here at Mercedes.”
George Russell explains more about his preparation on the airside.
“Physical and mental preparation is one thing, but the workload with the team, with the simulator, the post-race debriefs, getting ready for the events, doing whatever you think is necessary to bring the best performance in track.”
He then returns to the big change, off track.
“Mercedes is a huge global brand. We have a lot of top level sponsors. They are what keep us racing. Without the support of sponsors we couldn’t make the cars we have today. Of course “We have to give that back to them. To put that into perspective, I probably did more marketing events and activities in my first month at Mercedes than I did in three years at Williams.”
This is obviously an obligation that the young Briton understands, but he is not a big fan of it…
“I would say appreciate is a big word! It’s something that needs to be done, I recognize that, because they’re the ones supporting us, and you just can’t take, take, take. It’s really a team effort, and that goes for all departments.”
“It also shows the difficulties that Williams went through, because the team couldn’t find sponsors. Either you’re in a spiral that takes you up or down, and unfortunately at Williams, the results don’t weren’t good, so the sponsors left,” recalls Russell.
“You don’t have the money to invest in the team, so the performance gets worse. The sponsors are even less interested, and you’re just in this downward spiral, and it’s so hard to come back from that.”