Russell opens up about his childhood: 'That was difficult to deal with'

Lewis Hamilton makes no secret of the fact that he is not from a rich background, but Mercedes teammate George Russell was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth either. In an interview with The Times, the 25-year-old Briton opens up about his childhood.

"My earliest memories are of living in a mobile home while my parents built a house in a field in the middle of nowhere, near Wisbech in Cambridgeshire," Russell begins his story. "I rode a pedal tractor around the site, hurtling through corners and reversing with a trailer."

Racing is also in the Russell family's blood. Big brother Benjy started karting at the age of 11 and managed to become both national champion and world champion, but for him it was already too late to embark on a professional motorsport career. Instead, he became the mentor of his younger brother George, who got into karting as a six-year-old.

During the week, father Steve Russell was often away. "He got up early and came home late running a business selling seeds and pulses. As a kid you miss having your father around, but it’s only now that I appreciate he was doing it so I could race at the weekend," the Mercedes driver says. "Dad didn’t come from a lot and did well to create a successful business. We weren’t poor but we weren’t wealthy like the families of some F1 racing drivers now."

Like a number of fellow drivers such as Max Verstappen, Russell was also driven around from race to race by his father. Jos Verstappen has been known to be harsh in raising his son, but father Russell could also be strict. "When I drove well, there were celebrations and the mood was great but because everyone was so emotionally and financially invested, when I suffered a poor weekend the mood was bad," Russell continued.

"Dad has always been hard on the ones he loves. As a young kid, that was difficult to deal with. The pressure didn’t just filter down to me, it affected the whole family. I felt the weight of failure and expectation." However, Russell now understands why his father could be hard on him. "He had to work his arse off to support my racing, so if I didn’t put in enough effort, it must have been hard."