George Russell has turned heads in Formula 1 ever since he joined the grid back in 2019. From the get-go, he showed massive potential, and very quickly, he was promoted to Mercedes, where he would win races. But before you get to show what you are made of in the big leagues, you have to impress in the minor ones.
The road to Formula 1 is competitive and cutthroat but above all, fast. The only real way to advance in the lower leagues, is to impress by either winning or making headlines. a recent interview with George Russell has revealed a few techniques his father used to make the young karter go faster than he thought possible.
A slow stopwatch is the best motivation
In a recent episode of UNTAPPED podcast, George Russell was an exclusive guest and revealed some stories. One of these stories described how his father lied to him to help him win races when it really mattered.
“When I used to do go-karting at the time, there was no real data analysis. We didn’t even have lap times on practice days. It was literally my father with a stopwatch. And I learned after about five years that he would always time me late, so my lap times looked slower than reality.”
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“So he would tell me the lap times of the other drivers on practice days, and I always thought I was slow. And then I got to the races, and I was qualifying on pole, and I was winning races.”
This was a motivation for Russell to be like an F1 driver who regularly says ‘keep pushing’ and not just stop when you are fastest. The mentality that it creates is so important when you get into the even more competitive fields of feeder series.
Here, all cars are equal, so if you don’t do well, you have no one to blame but yourself. However, this mentality that Russell learned can be applied to every situation you’ll find yourself in.
George Russell describes the massive investment for the road to Formula 1
While his father pushed George as hard as he could as a kid, George thought he wasn’t good enough. But in time, Russell realized just how much time and emotional value his father invested in him to get to Formula 1:
“As a young kid, I’m thinking like, I’ve never seen my dad, I don’t see my father. Then when I do see him, he’s upset with me and I feel like I’m letting it down. That was really tough. But it’s only when I was about 17 years old, I recognized not the financial investment is one thing, but it’s the investment in time that he put into me. He had to work his ass off to give me that opportunity.”
“Ultimately, those years, I think from the age of 7 to 13, shape me as a person, and I have him to thank for that.”
While his father had an important impact on young George, you can still see the discipline he was taught. Russell always wants the car to improve, even if it gets him just one hundredth of a second in qualifying. That mentality is very important at the pinnacle of motorsport. It also shows why Russell has the potential to win world titles in the future.
