George Russell considers his rival Lando Norris’s entry into Formula 1 with McLaren helping him put pressure on Williams to start in 2019 season.
Norris was recruited by McLaren last September, shortly after the Italian Grand Prix. But at that point, the Carlin rider had been overtaken by his rival from ART Grand Prix, Russell, at the top of the F2 standings.
“The announcement about Lando made so early helped me to insist on Williams for my ride. Because if I was in front of him in the championship and McLaren thought he had the level for a Formula 1 ride,” Russel said.
“It showed good signs about me, and it probably added some pressure to Williams to say, ‘We have to recruit George because he’s the guy who’s leading in F2’.” Russel added,
Under contract with Mercedes, Russell secured his place at the beginning of October and has since been joined by Robert Kubica for 2019. He has won seven victories in his F2 season, matching the record held by Charles Leclerc and Stoffel Vandoorne. He also joined Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Nico Hulkenberg in the clan of drivers who won the title in their first season.
A season that has not been a long river, however, since the British racing driver has suffered more problems than his main rivals with the new F2 car. In Bahrain, he missed his start because of a difficult clutch, while he was hit by Nyck de Vries in the main race of Baku, while he was in the lead.
George Russell joins Williams in 2019. (Source:www.grandprix247.com)
He also suffered a break in the test drive in Monaco, compromising his entire weekend, a clutch problem at the Hungaroring where he was fourth on the grid, and an accelerator sensor problem at Paul Ricard. But the British driver is convinced that people who make decisions for his career know how to override his initial results.
“When I was talking to Mercedes and Toto [Wolff], they understood what was happening and the real potential,” Russell said.
“They just did not look at the ranking and the points we had lost, it was good to know in my mind that as long as they were happy, they would be the ones who would make the difference in my career.” Russell added.
