Russell: 'Substitution gives me a chance to sit back'

George Russell will start his third season at Williams in 2021. In the two previous years he never scored any points for that team. This year, too, that will be quite a task. For someone with his talent and achievements in junior classes, that must be almost indigestible. However, there is a good chance that he can make the step to a top team in 2022.

At the end of this season the contracts of Hamilton, Bottas and Russell expire. It is likely that one of these two drivers will not be able to renew his contract with Mercedes and that Russell will move on. Speaking to Sky Sports ' The F1 Show, however, the young Briton doesn't want to get too ahead of himself just yet.

"I think up to this point in my career I’ve been very very pushy. I was very pushy with Mercedes in the first place to get the opportunity to race in GP3, Formula 2 and getting myself into Formula 1."

Good raid brings calm to Russell

Russell, by his own admission, is a little calmer at the moment. One of the reasons he can afford to do so is the crushing impression he made on his entry for Mercedes in Bahrain last season. He then drove comfortably in the lead right from his first weekend and would have won the race had his team not botched the pit stop.

"I think I’ve had such a unique opportunity last year in Bahrain that I’m in a very comfortable position, I think that race was massive for myself and I think it gives me the opportunity now to sit back and relax and just really focus on the driving and what will happen will happen."

"I like to think I managed to show what I can do in a front running car, Mercedes are my mentors, my managers. We’ll just have to wait and see what comes in 2022, but I think, like I said, that opportunity for me was huge and perhaps I would’ve been going at it slightly differently if I didn’t have that opportunity last year."