Russell: 'Means a lot to me to hear something like that from Alonso'

Thanks to his eighth place in the Hungarian Grand Prix, George Russell is celebrating his holiday with a big smile. After the summer break 12 Grands Prix still await him. According to the Williams driver, the Dutch GP might be a good opportunity to gain some more World Championship points.

"Maybe at Zandvoort because it's a new track," Russell replies when asked by Auto, Motor und Sport what he sees as his biggest opportunity in the second half of 2021. "It will be a new experience for everyone. Maybe Monza as well. To our surprise we were fast there the last two years, even though we had a very inefficient car. This year we do have that efficiency."

Alonso a fan of Russell

The 23-year-old driver has managed to finish in the points only twice in 49 races. The first time was at the Sakhir GP last year when he replaced Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes and in Hungary. Still Fernando Alonso is a big fan of Russell. In qualifying, the driver currently 16th in the Drivers' Championship, for example, has always beaten both Nicholas Latifi and, in the past, Robert Kubica.

"I've heard it from the media [that he's a fan]. It means a lot to me to hear something like that from Fernando. He is one of the best drivers ever. I saw a statistic that he was only about ten points short of having many more titles. Two world championships is a great achievement, but he was so close to having much more. It's always nice to be praised by drivers you respect a lot," Russell concluded.