George Russell reveals 'bite in the ass' that sparked personal Mercedes improvement

George Russell has explained that his approach to a recent F1 season sparked a major change that helped him get "bigger results" with Mercedes last year.

In going up against seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, Russell felt that, in only his second season with Mercedes, following his move from Williams, he needed to go the extra mile on track to see what he was capable of.

Even in a relatively uncompetitive Mercedes, it backfired to a certain extent as Russell finished a lowly eighth in the drivers' championship, scoring just two podiums along the way. In contrast, Hamilton clinched six podiums, and finished five places and 59 points above his fellow Briton.

It was a lesson learned by Russell who, free from Hamilton's shadow last season, stepped to the fore and delivered his finest year with the team, finishing fourth in the standings, scoring wins in Canada and Singapore along the way.

"It was just during my time with Lewis, I sort of felt that I wanted to push myself to see if there was more in the tank, and go beyond the limit and see what happens," said Russell, speaking to select media, including RacingNews365, at the end of last season.

"It was mainly in '23, I wasn't satisfied just fighting for podiums. I preferred pushing the boundaries more to try and get a highlight result, rather than just settling for a podium or a P4.

"That sort of bit me in the ass a bit, so I reined it back a little bit [for last year], and in turn, that probably helped me get bigger results."

Russell 'rational and objective'

With rookie Kimi Antonelli as his team-mate, Russell also took on more of a team leader role in 2025.

The 27-year-old feels that, given his character, he was able to showcase his strengths behind the scenes given he is, as he describes himself, " quite a rational and objective person".

"This is a sport when emotions do get high quite a lot, especially in the heat of the moment, and I think that's absolutely fine," said Russell.

"But when you're in the engineers' office, the design office, talking about updates and the direction we need to take, it's very important to have a clear mind and a clear head, to not overreact in given moments.

"It's important to try and apply more objective reasoning why a certain weekend may have been a failure, or may not have been a failure, because there is never one reason that makes a weekend great or a weekend bad.

"But, definitely, there are always theories flying around, pointing at certain aspects as to the reason why we have failed, and if you action a plan based on that theory, it can take you in the wrong direction, potentially."