George Russell

Interesting facts

Russell's father sold the family's seed and pulse trading business in 2012 to help fund his son's racing career; George started karting at seven, following his older brother Benjy, and inherited his now-signature number 63 from a kart his brother had once rented. His father used a deliberate psychological trick, intentionally overstating George's lap times to push him to drive even faster. To fund his junior career, he put together a PowerPoint presentation that helped convince Mercedes to sign him as a junior driver in 2017, with Toto Wolff setting hard targets requiring him to win GP3 and Formula 2 before earning an F1 seat. At the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, filling in for COVID-positive Hamilton at Mercedes, he led much of the race, only to be denied victory by a pit-crew error that fitted teammate Bottas's tyres to his car. Known for his exceptional qualifying pace, he earned the nickname 'Mr. Saturday' and is regarded as one of the cleanest racers on the grid - at the 2022 British Grand Prix he immediately stopped to check on Zhou Guanyu after his heavy crash, even though it ended his own race. Following the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix, tension erupted with Verstappen after Russell reported him to the stewards for a penalty; Verstappen said he had 'lost all respect' for Russell and denied having threatened to 'put him in the wall.' George Russell has been racing in Formula 1 since 2019 as a British driver. He scored a total of 1244 championship points over his career. His best season was 2026, when he finished 2nd in the championship with 211 points.