Andrew Shovlin, chief race engineer at Mercedes, has no doubt George Russell can become world champion one day, but for that to happen the team needs to give him a car that he can fight for wins with.
Russell was accepted into the Mercedes youth program in 2017 on his way to a GP3 title, before winning the F2 title on his first attempt and making his Formula 1 debut with Williams in 2019.
But since last season he has played for Mercedes, where he partnered Lewis Hamilton and opened the scoring by winning the Brazilian Grand Prix. Also thanks to this success, George was ahead of the seven-time world champion in the individual competition – he took 4th place, and Hamilton – 6th.
The 2023 league season has been less successful for him so far, with just one podium in the early part of the season and a third-place finish in Spain, but Shovlin is confident that Russell will continue to be a key part of the team going forward to play.
“George is a top-notch professional and works very hard,” said Shovlin. “He is the type of person who it can be said without any doubt that one day he will win the championship if we can give him a car that is up to the task.
Of course we do everything we can to achieve this. In addition, he is very well versed in technology and can adapt to different circumstances. All good racers get better with time, they use every opportunity to improve their skills.
We were surprised when he took pole position in Hungary last year because we didn’t do well in Friday practice. We adjusted the settings and George had a great qualifying session with the best time. He has the ability to work with maximum concentration and there is no doubt that he will achieve great success with the team in the future.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
