George Russell (racing driver)

George William Russell (/rʌsəl/; 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 seven 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 victory 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 2025 Japanese Grand Prix, Russell has achieved three race wins, five pole positions, eight fastest laps and 17 podiums in Formula One. Russell is contracted 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 managed a business selling seeds and pulses before stepping down to a consultant role in 2012. 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 took up karting at the age of 7, following 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.
Russell attended Wisbech Grammar School, but shifted to homeschooling so that he could devote more time to his racing career. At 18, he moved to Milton Keynes to be closer to his junior racing team, rooming with former teammate Alex Albon.
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. He joined the Intrepid karting team with help from Intrepid's Alex Albon; his teammates that year included Albon and Charles Leclerc. Russell became CIK-FIA European Champion and won the SKUSA SuperNationals title, while Leclerc won the Karting World Cup. In 2012, Russell defended his European title and nearly defended his SKUSA title following Lance Stroll's disqualification, although Stroll's win was ultimately reinstated. In his final year of karting in 2013, Russell moved up to KF1, finishing 19th in the 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 led most of the BRDC F4 season, but lost the points lead to teammate Arjun Maini before the final race at Snetterton, which Formula Scout attributed to a mid-season case of chickenpox. He won that race to claim the title. 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.
Although Russell was expected to spend 2015 competing full-time in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, his BRDC Award win prompted him to skip directly to European Formula Three, where he spent the next two years. Mercedes' Toto Wolff offered to fund his 2015 season, but since Russell had already been vetoed from Prema, Mercedes' top F3 affiliate, Russell signed with Volkswagen affiliate Carlin in 2015.
In 2015, Russell finished sixth, winning one race and collecting three podiums; PaddockScout opined that his qualifying pace was "his one obvious weak-spot," and that he primarily stood out for his race pace and ability to cleanly overtake other drivers. 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. At season's end, BMW offered him a DTM drive, but he chose to stay in F3 to compete for a spot on the Mercedes Junior Team.
In 2016, Russell switched to Hitech GP, a new Mercedes affiliate competing in its first full F3 season. That year, Prema allegedly received special engines from Mercedes and technical support (including a suspension upgrade) from Williams. Stroll (whose family was funding Prema) 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 for the 2017 season. ART was GP3's dominant team, having won six of the last seven team titles. In 2017, it swept the top four places in the standings.
Russell won the title as a rookie, scoring four wins and finishing 79 points ahead of the second-placed Jack Aitken. He 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, Alex Albon, Nyck de Vries, and Nicholas Latifi.
ART did not carry over its lopsided dominance from the prior year's F3 season, as Norris' Carlin took the teams' championship. Although Formula Two is a spec series and every engine is built by the same company, Russell, Albon, and Norris agreed that in practice, teams had engines of varying quality. Albon and Norris said that Russell had the best engine that year, while Russell and Albon said that Norris' engine was very competitive early in the season. After ten races, Norris led the standings. Russell heated up at midseason, finishing either first or second in five out of six races. He qualified in the top four at all but one race (where he had engine trouble). 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.
During Russell's junior career, Mercedes gave Russell several opportunities to drive a Formula One car. He drove a Mercedes for the first time in April 2017, testing the 2015 Mercedes W06 at Portimão. He then conducted formal test drives for Mercedes (2017 and 2018) and Force India-Mercedes (2018). 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. Russell had previously applied for a Williams drive after winning the 2017 GP3 title, but Williams' Paddy Lowe was unmoved by his new PowerPoint presentation and Russell went to Formula Two. Russell 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.
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 after the 2020 season if Magnussen could find enough sponsor money to keep the team afloat.
Due to Russell's extended run at Williams, he is third on the list of most race starts in a career before scoring points, with 37. However, the Formula One team principals viewed his performances more favorably. In 2020, a year where Russell scored only three points and finished 18th in the standings, the team principals ranked him that year's sixth-best driver. 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. At Russell's Formula One race debut, the Australian Grand Prix, Russell qualified 19th and finished 16th. He acknowledged that his experience was difficult, remarking that the car was "four seconds off the pace" and that he was lapped multiple times. Williams' slow pace continued into the season, and 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. He also outqualified Kubica at all twenty-one races.
Russell's best placement was 11th at the rain-affected German Grand Prix, where Williams rolled out an upgrade, six cars retired without classifying, and another two cars received time penalties after the race. He came close to finishing 10th, but unsuccessfully asked to pit for slick tyres during a safety car and ran wide on turn two several laps later, allowing Kubica to overtake him and score the team's only point that year. In 2023, Russell remarked that it was the most disappointing moment of his career. Russell also finished 12th at the Brazilian Grand Prix after a late safety car allowed him to unlap himself, missing out on points by 1.668 seconds. He finished 20th in the Drivers' Championship, scoring no points to Kubica's one. Russell later remarked that as a competitor, it was hard for him to watch fellow rookies Alex Albon and Lando Norris competing for points and podiums after beating them the year before in F2.
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 (starting 11th but falling to 16th after running into the gravel during a re-start lap) 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, he 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. He finished ninth, picking up two points for the finish and one point for the fastest lap. He later remarked that while "I was the same driver [in Sakhir] as I had been before ... I was exactly the same driver a week later [driving for Williams at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix] when I was out in Q1." In Abu Dhabi, 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, all for Mercedes.
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. Both drivers sought to downplay the dispute, at least publicly, after Bottas rejoined Mercedes in 2025.
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 fourteen-lap defensive battle, Fernando Alonso passed him with three 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 round three, the Australian Grand Prix, Russell crashed heavily while trying to overtake Fernando Alonso (who received a 20-second penalty for brake-checking Russell) for sixth place on the penultimate lap. The accident left him immobile and defenceless behind a 250 km/h blind turn for ten seconds before the race director deployed the virtual safety car. However, he emerged unscathed and met with Alonso to smooth things over. Following the race, he called for automated safety cars to prevent similar incidents.
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.
In 2025, following Hamilton's departure for Ferrari, Mercedes partnered Russell with the Mercedes Junior Team's Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Russell's contract expires at the end of the season, although team principal Toto Wolff suggested that there are “options” to extend the contract to an unspecified date.
Going into 2025, defending constructors' champion McLaren were heavily favoured to retain their title. Russell opined that the McLaren MCL39 was fast enough to win every race in 2025, although McLaren dismissed his claim as hyperbolic. Russell started 2025 with two straight podiums at Melbourne and Shanghai, although in both cases, he spent most of the race trailing the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. At Melbourne, he raced conservatively in intermittently rainy conditions and inherited third place when Piastri went off track. At Shanghai, Russell qualified second for the feature race, splitting the two McLarens; however, good teamwork from the McLarens allowed Norris to pass him at turn one, and Russell finished third despite a late charge when Norris' brakes failed. Russell also finished fourth in the Chinese sprint race after multiple battles with Charles Leclerc, who finished fifth.
According to Williams' Dave Robson, Russell is an instinctive driver who can adapt to a variety of cars. He has specifically been noted for controlling cars that are unstable when entering corners. Compared to his former teammate Lewis Hamilton, Russell brakes earlier, turns later, and "carries more speed through the corner and exiting it." During the 2024 season, the racing press suggested that Russell's style might be a better fit for the present generation of ground effect cars than Hamilton's, with Mark Hughes adding that Mercedes' successful midseason upgrades accentuated this F1-wide trend.
In his junior and early career, Russell's smooth driving style was compared to that of Jenson Button. However, Robson (who worked with both Russell and Button at Williams and McLaren, respectively) suggested that Russell sought to strike a balance between Button and Lewis Hamilton. Since joining Mercedes, Russell adapted his driving to take more aggressive and direct V-shaped approaches into corners, drawing comparisons to Mika Häkkinen, although Jolyon Palmer argued that compared to Russell, Hamilton's V-shapes are more distinct. Palmer also noted that Russell takes particularly wide exits out of corners to generate as much speed as possible, and said that Russell's precise car control allows him to survive risky turns.
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 and Russell collided at the start of the race, bumping Russell into Zhou.) However, after Russell questioned Charles Leclerc's defensive tactics during the 2023 British Grand Prix, Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur noted that Russell had used similar tactics to defend his position in prior races, explaining that "that's life" in Formula One.
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." During Russell's years at Williams, Fernando Alonso said that Russell had great natural speed and "surprises me every weekend".
Russell's tyre management has alternately been praised and criticised. He was praised for his tyre management at Williams. Upon joining Mercedes, he overextended his tyres on several occasions, contributing to some disappointing results. His 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 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.
Like many Formula One drivers, Russell has participated in the Formula 1: Drive to Survive television show, explaining in 2024 that while he understands some "people are upset that everything is dramatized" in the show, he accepts the show's style as long as it draws new fans into the sport. The show's coverage of Russell has primarily focused on his efforts to join and stay at Mercedes. The fourth season (2022) traces his efforts to obtain the second Mercedes seat for 2022, when Valtteri Bottas' contract expired, and includes a scene in which Toto Wolff informs Russell of his promotion, which Motor Sport thought was staged for the cameras. The seventh season (2025) details Russell's efforts to earn a leadership role at Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton announced his departure for Ferrari, and suggested that Russell secured his place in Mercedes by winning the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, when in reality, he was disqualified from that race. Russell was also a featured narrator in the episode about the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
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.
Within Formula One, Russell is particularly close friends with Alex Albon, as well as Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, with whom he and Albon streamed racing games on Twitch during the COVID-19 pandemic. Russell said that Albon helped him get into a top karting team, and Albon said that Russell campaigned for Williams to give him Russell's open seat after Russell left for Mercedes. He is also friends with Fernando Alonso, who has called him a "future world champ".
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.
As Russell was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points. * Season still in progress.
(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)
† As Russell was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points
(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)
(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. * Season still in progress.