Claire Williams, Williams deputy Formula 1 principal, found herself surprised by rookie George Russel.
She was “blown away” by his approach and performance during this year season.
The season for Williams has been a chaos because Russel and Robert Kubica had been fighting each other off.
“I’ve been blown away by George,” Williams told. “Unless you are inside this team you don’t really know how hard it has been. George understood what he was coming into and he could see it himself, but we very clearly warned him what it was going to be like.
“And from the get go he has really behaved in a way that you could say is exemplary because it’s been tough for him, not having a car that he would like to have.
“It has been tough for him seeing his peers that have graduated from F2 at the same time [Lando Norris and Alex Albon] get into machinery that is far more competitive than he’s got.
“He’ s one of those drivers that when he does have a [competitive] car, he’s going to really light things up.
“We see him on a Saturday in qualifying – and people might not focus on what George Russell does because he’s in a Williams at the back – but he gets in that car, and the boys gather around the TV screens and they’re excited about watching him.
“It’s a bit like Nigel [Mansell], he just extracts everything that he possibly can and yes it might be a second off getting into Q2 but he’s still banging in some pretty impressive laps.
“And outside the car as well, considering this is his first year, the knowledge that he has on how a Formula 1 car works and [how] to translate that into useful information that the engineers can then use to develop has been impressive.
“And he’s been able to maintain this demeanour that he has. Everyone knows and loves George because of the personality that he is. I can’t speak highly enough of him and him.
“I am enormously grateful to George because he has very quickly understood the role that he can play in keeping team morale up empty space. Yes, he has the occasional moan like we all do, but he has held his head high and he’s done everything that we’ve asked him to do.
“But he’s also gone above and beyond that and really played a huge part in maintaining morale in this team and leading it in that sense.”
