George Russell began his racing career in karting in 2006, winning the the MSA British Cadet and the British Open Championships in 2009.
Graduating to the Rotax Mini Max category for the following year George swept all before him winning the Super One British and Formula Kart Stars British Championships along with the Kartmasters British Grand Prix.
Another season in karting followed in 2011 when Premier Junior Karting class (KF3) where he won the SKUSA Supernationals title, before becoming European Junior Champion in 2012 and 2013 – his last season before moving up to single-seater racing cars.
2014 saw George compete in his first season of single-seater racing, taking the BRDC Formula 4 Championship title in his debut season, along with a number of podiums in a part-time campaign in the Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS Championship with a win in the Formula Renault Eurocup finale to round off another successful year for the Briton.
His achievements in 2014 earned him the prestigious McLaren BRDC Autosport Award, beating fellow 2019 Formula debutant Alexander Albon to become the youngest-ever winner of the prize.
Moving up to Formula 3 with Carlin for 2015, George Russell won first time out at Silverstone beating Charles Leclerc and Antionio Giovinazzi into second and third place. Two further podiums followed that season en-route to sixth place in the championship.
Switching to HitechGP squad for 2016 George finished the year with two victories and ten podiums – enough to secure him third place in the championship.
In his debut in the Macau Grand Prix, George took pole position but finished fifth in the qualifying race before taking a respectable seventh in the Grand Prix itself having been ranked 13th prior to the event.
Russell joins Mercedes juniors
His performances in 2016 brought George to the attention of the reigning Formula 1 World Champions Mercedes-AMG Petronas and he was soon announced as the latest addition to their junior driver programme.
For 2017 George moved up to GP3 – a support series to Formula 1 in races in Europe.
GP3 is seen as being one of the main stepping stones to Formula 1 and a chance for drivers to be noticed by F1 team personnel as well as by Grand Prix crowds.
Racing for ART Grand Prix, George took this opportunity with both hands and comfortably won the championship with races to spare.
As his reward, George was given a couple of Friday free practice runs in Formula 1 with the Mercedes powered Force India team.
He naturally moved up a class into F2 for the 2018 season, again with ART Grand Prix, at the same time acting as Mercedes’ reserve driver in F1.
Winning more races (7) and with more pole positions than any of his rivals, George claimed the F2 title at his first attempt.
With F2 champion prevented from competing in the following year’s championship, George and Mercedes (to whom George is still contracted) were faced with a headache as to what he should do next.
George Russell joins Williams
A season on the sidelines as Mercedes’ reserve driver was considered along with a number of other opportunities until on the 12 October 2018 George Russell was announced as a Williams F1 driver for the 2019 F1 World Championship and beyond, having signed a multi-year deal.
George Russell made his debut in the 2019 Australian Grand Prix on the 17th of March, the start of a ‘character building’ season where his only competition was his team-mate Robert Kubica, the Williams FW42 being so far adrift of the cars around it.
It was a competition that Russell would win comfortably, despite ending the season a point adrift of Kubica, finishing 16 of the 21 races in 2019 as lead Williams, and out-qualifying the Pole at every Grand Prix.
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