Williams: George Russell displayed “exemplary” attitude through tough season

Claire Williams, deputy team principal of Williams Formula 1 team, has said that she was “blown away” by George Russell’s “exemplary” attitude towards his first season with the struggling team.

Williams have spent the past two years propping up the back of the grid with the distance between them and cars in front increasing over time.

But Russell knew what he was signing on for when he joined the Grove-based team alongside Robert Kubica, showing his worth out-qualifying his teammate at every race.

"I've been blown away by George," Williams told Motorsport.com.

"Unless you are inside this team you don't really know how hard it has been.

“George understood what he was coming into and he could see it himself, but we very clearly warned him what it was going to be like.

"And from the get go he has really behaved in a way that you could say is exemplary because it's been tough for him, not having a car that he would like to have.”

Russell won the Formula 2 championship in 2018, ahead of Lando Norris who had a great 2019 with McLaren and Alex Albon who started the year with Toro Rosso, before being promoted to Red Bull.

Williams believes that when Russell has a competitive car it people will really see what he can  do on track, drawing similarities to Nigel Mansell.

"It has been tough for him seeing his peers that have graduated from F2 at the same time [Lando Norris and Alex Albon] get into machinery that is far more competitive than he's got,” she added.

"He' s one of those drivers that when he does have a [competitive] car, he's going to really light things up.

"We see him on a Saturday in qualifying - and people might not focus on what George Russell does because he's in a Williams at the back - but he gets in that car, and the boys gather around the TV screens and they're excited about watching him.

"It's a bit like Nigel [Mansell], he just extracts everything that he possibly can and yes it might be a second off getting into Q2 but he's still banging in some pretty impressive laps."