Russell on Mercedes feedback: No praise but "a bollocking if I don't perform"

George Russell found himself virtually parked at the back of the Formula 1 grid for the duration of the 2019 season. Despite his Williams car not giving him any realistic chances to impress, the young British driver managed to show-off his talents to leave pundits and fans tipping him to have a quality future. After all, Russell is part of the Mercedes junior set-up. 

Even when performance and results were at their lowest in 2019, Russell managed to keep his head up and had a positive attitude in front of the cameras and journalists. His mentality is certainly one of his strongest attributes. The 21-year-old also seems to understand the Mercedes attitude which helping him grown despite not being inside the champions garage yet.

"They [Mercedes] believe in me; they believe I've got the potential and I also think about it in a similar way. I'm being paid to deliver a very high level, and when I do that, it's what I'm being paid to do. If a postman delivers his post, he doesn't get a pat on the back because he delivered his post, it's part of the job," Russell said in a conversation with Autosport. 

"My job, I should only be getting a bollocking if I don't perform to a level. That's the mentality, and they do appreciate it when you do something special, but everybody in a Formula 1 team - that's the chefs in catering, they're employed to deliver great food, the aerodynamicist is employed to deliver a great aero car, engineers and strategists are employed to perform a great strategy and set-up and everything."

No praise

Russell obviously impressed Mercedes when he was younger. On his way towards the Williams seat, Russell won GP3 and Formula 2. At that time in his career, he admits he expected to get more praise. 

"With Mercedes, it's always been the way that they won't tell me when I'm doing a good job, but only tell me when I'm not doing a good job. When I raced GP3 and I won GP3, I got a phone call to say 'well done', but straightaway we were talking about doing Formula 2 and doing FP1 sessions with Force India. At the time, I was like, 'I've only just won the championship, surely I should be having a celebratory party or something?" Russell added.