George Russell: Early career struggles helping him cope with Williams' woes

George Russell's introduction to Formula 1 hasn't been easy with the trouble Williams is in. Both cars are parked at the back of the grid, but Russell says earlier troubles in his career are helping him deal with the constant woes.

"Yeah, you know, it's not my first difficult year. I think sometimes if you have just such a perfect career path, when you do have a difficulty, you don't know how to handle it, whereas I've had a number of difficult moments in my career," Russell told Motorsport.com.

Despite winning back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018 Russell has to go back to his karting days to draw upon difficult experiences.

“My last year in karting was very difficult, I went to a team [Birel ART] which wasn't performing at the time. I saw it as a win-win situation; if I performed it'd look great on me and if I didn't, people would just blame it on the equipment. You can call that a character-building season," he added.

The 2019 Formula 1 season has plenty of rookie drivers who have been successful in teammate battles, Russell included. Earlier today, Jack Aitken said Formula 2 was the perfect school for young drivers seeking a Formula 1 career and Russell agrees.

The Brit won the 2018 Formula 2 title and Russell draws upon this to highlight the level of his performance.

“I think the level of rookies these days is extremely high, and obviously in these difficult times for me, looking at what they're doing, I wouldn't say it fills me with pride, but it kind of looks good on me as well. Obviously, we all [Russell, Norris and Albon] raced in equal machinery [in F2] last year, so if they're doing a great job, then that looks good on me as well.”