Why Russell is enjoying racing with a Williams that has stopped development

George Russell has said Williams are having to get creative with their 2021 car, as the Grove-based team seek to consolidate eighth place in the Constructors' Championship despite having stopped development for this season.

With all eyes at the team now on the technical revolution that is the 2022 rulebook, the FW43B is now in its final form. While this is now the case for most of the teams, Russell has explained that it is forcing the engineers to think more creatively about how to set up the car for races, and there has been plenty of experimentation since the season resumed after the summer break.

"You've got to look at the global picture," Russell told select members of the media, including RacingNews365.com, when asked about whether he's annoyed about the lack of development as he heads into the final races of his Williams career before leaving for Mercedes.

"I think we probably developed this as far into the season as most, or as the majority of the teams. But I think it's given us a unique situation to try more things from a race engineer perspective, trying different setups on the car, we know the package we've got, we know we've got nothing more to bring."

Russell explained that the challenge is only benefitting him more, given the increased exposure to the technical aspects of setting a car up.

"So what can we do with the package, we've got to try and find even more performance," he said.

"I'm enjoying that, delving into the engineering side even more to try new things. To be honest, since the summer break, we've been trying a lot of different directions and philosophies with the setup of the car, and I'm just enjoying that side of things and expanding my knowledge further on the technical side of things."