George Russell, Williams Formula 1 driver , says he remain committed to his current team. He maintains his focus on securing eighth position for the team. And he considers it “unprofessional” to shift his focus on Mercedes, because of his seat at the team next year.
In 2017, Russell joined Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport in capacity of junior driver. He was contracted to Force India and then to Williams for three seasons in 2019.
However, the team has decided to take him onboard next year. He will be replacing Valtteri Bottas as Lewis Hamilton’s team mate.
The decision was announced in September and since then he faced questions regarding his move to the big team.
Russell, however, does not feel the need to talk about its forthcoming team. He considers it “unprofessional” to focus on next year rather than focusing on the current team. Williams is currently struggling to make its place on eighth position at the constructors championship.
“Obviously, I get asked a lot of questions regarding the Mercedes move next year, but I think it is unprofessional if I start thinking ahead too quick or too early,” Russell said to a question about his Mercedes move.
“I am giving as much effort into this season and the remaining races as I ever have.”
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Alfa Romeo dominated the team in first half of the season. However, Williams got ahead with a seventh and eighth position secured by Nicholas Latifi and Russel in Hungary.
The lead was further extended by George Russell securing podium at Belgian Grand Prix. Half points were awarded to the drivers for a rained out race. The British driver secured nine points and it helped Williams gaining total 20 points after the summer break.
Nonetheless, Kimi Raikkonen secured eighth place in Russia and Mexico, reducing the gap to only 12 points. It brought Alfa Romeo back to fight for eight position with remaining four races in the current 2021 season.
“I want to make sure that we seal this P8 in the championship but obviously Alfa picked up four more points now,” Russell added after leading home Latifi in a distant 16th place in Mexico, the pair finishing outside the points for a third consecutive race.
“I don’t know what happened to Antonio [Giovinazzi] as they were both in the points at one point. So that is our goal now, to try to score some more points and try to stop them scoring points.”
