A special debut
Even today, having already achieved seven wins in his career and being in contention, albeit as a chaser, for the 2026 world title, one of the most iconic moments in George Russell’s career remains his debut GP with Mercedes, in the chaotic 2020 season.
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Called by the Brackley team to replace the newly seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who was knocked out by Covid, at the 2020 Sakhir GP, Russell gave an impressive demonstration of his talent by nearly taking pole position (he was beaten by teammate Valtteri Bottas by just 26 thousandths) and dominating the race, but failing to win it due first to a shocking mistake made by the mechanics in the pits – who in the chaos of a double stop fitted him with his teammate’s tires – and then a puncture that prevented him from completing the comeback that had already brought him from fifth to second.
In a recent long interview given to the program SAP Significant Figures, broadcast on YouTube, Russell revealed a particular behind-the-scenes story of that weekend in Bahrain, revealing that he still bears the marks of what happened that weekend and not figuratively.
The scar
“I got the call on Tuesday. On Wednesday I got in the car to see if I could do it, but I couldn’t,” Russell revealed – the two drivers at that time were Lewis and Valtteri Bottas, who are definitely shorter than me.” Russell is one of the tallest drivers on the grid at 185 centimeters tall, a full 11 cm taller than Lewis Hamilton, the driver he was replacing. A detail not to be underestimated for an F1 car. Valtteri Bottas, the other Mercedes driver at the time, is also much shorter than Russell at 173 cm.
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“Also, I have rather large feet, which creates some discomfort in a Formula 1 car,” added the then Williams driver – I was curled up, bent forward, my shoes didn’t fit. I wear size 45 and had to wear size 43 shoes to fit in.” A position far from comfortable but Russell did not want to reveal this to the team mechanics who were ‘setting up’ the car for him. “They asked me: ‘Is it okay?’. And I answered ‘Yes, all good. No problem, no problem’. Inside I was thinking: ‘I will drive, no matter what, I will drive this weekend’. I still have the scars on my hips,” Russell added.
Despite the very unfortunate outcome of that Grand Prix, Russell had still managed to prove his worth to Toto Wolff and in 2022 he would finally become a full-time driver at the wheel of one of the silver arrows: “That was my first chance,” Russell concluded – until then I had never scored a point in my entire career because we were very slow at Williams. I was on track to win the race and then everything was taken away from me. It was tough, but I also knew that what I had shown in that race would be enough to guarantee me a future with this team. I knew my moment would come. Of course, maybe if my career had ended the following year due to an injury or something like that and if I had never won a Formula 1 race, that would have marked me for the rest of my life.”
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