#63 · Mercedes
George Russell
Mercedes' team leader since Hamilton left for Ferrari. A junior-formula champion who served his apprenticeship at Williams in the team's worst years.
4
Race wins
18
Podiums
5
Pole positions
0
Championships
Why he matters
Russell won every junior series he entered — GP3 in 2017, F2 in 2018 — and was signed to the Mercedes development program before he reached F1. He spent three patient years at Williams during the team’s worst seasons, then was promoted to Mercedes in 2022 alongside Hamilton. With Hamilton’s move to Ferrari for 2025, Russell became the senior driver.
How he drives
He’s a qualifying specialist — known in the paddock as “Mr. Saturday” — and is one of the cleanest wheel-to-wheel racers on the grid. The criticism leveled at him is that he sometimes lacks the killer instinct of a Hamilton or Verstappen in the closing laps of a race.
Watch for
- Qualifying laps — Russell extracts the absolute maximum from a Mercedes on Saturdays.
- Tyre management on long stints — he’s frequently the driver who makes a one-stop strategy work when a two-stop was expected.
- His role as GPDA (drivers’ association) director — he is unusually visible in F1’s political conversations.