George Russell

George Russell, born on 15 February 1998 in King’s Lynn, England, began his motorsport career in karting and won the European karting championship twice in a row. Via Formula 4 and European Formula 3 (where he took three race wins across two seasons and finished runner-up as a rookie behind Charles Leclerc), he moved to GP3 in 2017: there he won with the ART team, including a victory at his home circuit of Silverstone, and secured the title with a round to spare. In 2018 he went one better, winning Formula 2 in his first attempt: a rare double.

Russell made his Formula 1 debut for Williams in 2019 and stood out with his qualifying performances despite a car with no points-scoring potential, earning him the nickname “Mr. Saturday”. His stand-in appearance at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix caused a stir, when he stepped in on short notice for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes after Hamilton tested positive for Covid-19: Russell led for large parts of the race, but lost out on a possible sensation due to a pit stop mistake by the team and a tyre failure.

In 2022 he moved to Mercedes for good and celebrated his first Formula 1 win at the Grand Prix of São Paulo. Over three seasons as team-mates, Russell and Hamilton fought a close battle: Russell won two of the three seasons on points and out-qualified Hamilton 39 times, while Hamilton collected more podiums and secured the internal points lead on the final lap of his last race for Mercedes.

In 2024, Russell ended a 33-race win drought in Austria and added another victory in Las Vegas. In Belgium he was on course for a third win of the season, but disqualification for failing to meet the minimum weight requirement cost him the result afterwards. Since 2021 he has also served as a director of the GPDA drivers’ association. The 2025 season, with wins in Canada and Singapore, nine podiums and a career-best 319 points, became the most successful of his career so far; he opened the new 2026 season with a dominant win at the Australian Grand Prix.

He carries the number 63 in honour of his older brother Benjy, who raced under that number in karting. Following Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, Russell took on the role of team leader at Mercedes in 2025.