George
Russell

George Russell was born on 15 February 1998 in King's Lynn, England. He started karting aged seven and won the junior European title in 2011 and 2012. In 2014 he took the BRDC Formula 4 championship in Britain. He then spent two years in European Formula Three, finishing sixth with Carlin in 2015 and third with Hitech in 2016. In 2017 he joined the Mercedes junior team and won the GP3 Series with ART Grand Prix that same year. In 2018 he won the Formula 2 title, again with ART. After Charles Leclerc, he was the second driver to win both championships in his first season of each.

Russell made his Formula One debut with Williams in 2019, partnering Robert Kubica and later Nicholas Latifi. In qualifying he beat his two team-mates in 57 of 59 head-to-head meetings. At the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix he stood in for the absent Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. He led most of the race, but a pit-stop error and a puncture cost him the victory. He finished ninth and scored his first world championship points. In 2021 he took his first podium at the Belgian Grand Prix, which was cut short by rain. For 2022 he moved to Mercedes.

At Mercedes he was Hamilton's team-mate from 2022 to 2024. In 2022 he claimed his first pole position in Hungary and his first win in São Paulo, and finished the championship in fourth place. He was eighth in 2023 and sixth in 2024. In 2024 he won in Austria and Las Vegas. At Spa he crossed the line first, but was disqualified after the race. Over their three seasons together, he out-qualified Hamilton 39 times to 29.

In 2025 his team-mate was Kimi Antonelli of Italy. Russell won in Canada, taking pole position and the fastest lap as well, and in Singapore, and finished fourth in the championship. In 2026 he won the Australian and Austrian Grands Prix, among others. In Azerbaijan he achieved a grand slam: pole position, victory, fastest lap and the lead on every lap. Russell drives for Mercedes.

Source: Wikipedia, “George Russell (racing driver)”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.