Russell learnt from Mercedes outing: 'I was able to take that with me'

We all remember George Russell's stint with Mercedes with mixed emotions. Lewis Hamilton's positive coronavirus test meant that Russell was promoted to the world champions, and after qualifying P2, he overtook Valtteri Bottas on the first corner, and came so close to winning the Sakhir GP, losing out through no fault of his own.

A botched pit stop eventually threw a spanner in the works, although Russell did manage to score his first World Championship points with a ninth place finish. A poor consolation from what would've been a race victory on his Mercedes debut. Nevertheless, the young Briton has learned a lot. "I think the way Mercedes works is very analytical and goes very deep into certain details," the Brit said of the comparison with Williams on Motorsport-Total.com. "I've been able to take that with me across the road."

"I can almost take a bit of both and mix the two [Mercedes and Williams operations] to see what works best for me," the Williams driver continued. "And so there were little details of what I learned there with the data, and I tried to implement a bit of that here. They are all very useful."

Not everything Russell learned at Mercedes, he can use at Williams. "In the end, Formula 1 is very dynamic and you have to learn how to get the best out of your machine. If it works in a Mercedes, it doesn't mean it will work in a Williams," he explained.

That is probably the most important lesson he has learned at Mercedes. "I learned that you have to be dynamic. So I had to change my driving style quite a lot to get the best out of their car. And similarly, when I came back to Williams, I had to adapt again because at Williams I couldn't do the things I could do at Mercedes."