George Russell signed as a junior driver for Mercedes F1 in 2015 and was eventually promoted to the Mercedes F1 team in 2022 as teammate of Lewis Hamilton.
George Russell has explained how delaying contact with Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff by a week was crucial to securing a place in the driver development programme.
George Russell, who signed as a development driver for Mercedes F1 in 2015, received support through the junior category, won the GP3 title in 2017, the F2 title in 2018, and made his debut with Williams F1 in 2019.
After three years at Williams F1, Toto Vorg has opted to promote George Russell to the Mercedes F1 team for 2022, to partner with Lewis Hamilton.
George Russell won the Mercedes F1 team’s only victory in the 2022 season at the F1 Brazilian Grand Prix, but the team failed the new technical rules and fell back to 3rd place in the ranking. It has been a difficult season for the eight-time champion team.
George Russell looks back on his first approach to Toto Wolff during his F4 days and reveals how important the one-week difference was.
“When I was 16, I thought the world was going to come to me,” George Russell explained to HighPerformance.
“It was only that year that I realized they weren’t looking for me. I had to go find them myself. I had to knock on their door.”
“You won’t see Toto look at British F4 and see George Russell here who won the championship by a few points.”
“But I thought if I stood in front of him and talked to him and showed what I was capable of, I might have a chance. I got his email
“I thought, ‘I have nothing to lose. At worst he just doesn’t answer, I lose nothing. At worst he answers.'”
“I literally just emailed him and didn’t want to be too harsh, so I just wrote, ‘My name is George and it would be great to meet you and talk about the future.'”
“I understand that little things make a difference. On the receiving end, you need someone in the right state of mind,” Russell continued.
“If he had a bad day or was busy and I sent him the email a week ago which is the Tuesday before the Abu Dhabi GP, he probably would have seen it and ignored it.
“But if it’s the Tuesday after Abu Dhabi after the season when I sent the email, he’s relaxed and he’s just won the championship, so I thought there was an opportunity here.”
“I sent it around 9pm and he replied within 15 minutes with a copy of the PA.”
“Four weeks later, I was sitting in his office. He was very kind and gave me a lot of time.”
“I stopped the conversation saying I was going to race in Formula 3. We started talking again at the end of 2015. That’s when I signed with Mercedes.
George Russell completed simulator duties for the team throughout 2016 before taking his first F1 test at the Hungaroring in 2017.
Category: F1 / George Russell / mercedes