Former deputy team boss of Williams, Claire Williams, reveals why she did not allow George Russell to move to Mercedes earlier. The Brit joined the backmarker team in 2019 to ‘mature’, but Mercedes soon wanted to give Russell a spot next to Lewis Hamilton. Williams put a stop to this. ‘I needed him more than Mercedes did,’ the Brit admits candidly.
George Russell won the Formula 2 title in 2018, with a record number of points of 287. The Brit left Lando Norris and Alexander Albon, who respectively finished in second and third place, behind him. However, this did not immediately mean an F1 seat at a top team for Russell. The Brit first had to ‘mature’ at Williams, where he was unable to score points during his first two seasons.
Mercedes wanted to promote Russell to the seat next to Lewis Hamilton soon after. Claire Williams, former deputy team boss of Williams and daughter of founder Frank Williams, however, put a stop to this. “George wanted to go to Mercedes in recent years and I couldn’t let him go and I hated that,” Williams candidly tells in the Beyond The Grid podcast. “It upsets me when I think about it.””The British acted primarily in the interest of the team. “I needed him more than Mercedes did, and he was under contract. If I had let him go, what message would that have sent? What would it have done to my team if I had let George go? He was one of the best things we had at Williams. If you’re negotiating with a team like Mercedes and they’re not offering you what they should be offering for your star driver, why would you let him go?”
Just Too Late to Join Mercedes
Russell, however, did not appreciate Williams’ decision. “George Russell was clearly upset, and it was really tough.” The Brit eventually moved up to the Silver Arrows in 2022, just as the new ground effect regulations came into effect. Mercedes then lost their dominant position in the field. “If I had come to the team five years earlier, you could say that I could have had two titles,” Russell lamented earlier.
