Racing driver Jordan Albert revealed on his BackSeat Drivers podcast, an incident about George Russell and his arrogance, as a 16-year-old. Albert cited how the Mercedes driver was prone to show some ‘entitled’ behavior like he owned the place, but also defended his actions. This anecdote was from 2014 when Russell and Albert competed in the BRDC Formula 4 championship.
His co-host Gusta Burton asked him to elaborate on the story of how he noticed Russell’s behavior. To this, Albert stated, “I only ever walked past him. But one thing about George was, he was 16, and I was 17. He acted like he owned the place. You do, he walked around like he owned the place.”
Both Gus and Jordan agreed that a racing driver needs to have this kind of confidence or arrogance to thrive in the sport. Back in that season, Albert cited how Russell was the top contender for the championship.
He highlighted how most races, the 25-year-old never dropped out of the top 6 and the win was always on the table. Eventually, Russell won the 2014 BRDC F4 title by only three points against his teammate Arjun Maini, brother of current F2 driver Kush Maini.
Years later, the #63 driver has retained his aggressive attitude on track. Driving in F1 for 5 seasons now, Russell knows how to be blunt even to his team and engineers and get his point across. At several points, his team radio reflects his annoyed thoughts and mindset, if things are not going his way.
This has often landed the Briton in the bad books of motorsport experts and veteran racers. Often former drivers like Jolyon Palmer and Martin Brundle diss Russell’s radio complaints on commentary.
George Russell is gaining a bad reputation in F1
Ever since George Russell arrived at Mercedes, he has looked to match and beat Lewis Hamilton. While he achieved this goal in 2022, by outscoring the 39-year-old; 2023 did not go his way. The Mercedes duo had a lot of tussles which had a tipping point in Qatar.
Both drivers collided on lap 1 of the 2023 Qatar GP, causing Hamilton to beach his car in the gravel with damage and retire immediately. Meanwhile, Russell’s race also got compromised, leaving him out of the podium places. Initially, both blamed each other for the collision. However, later on, seeing the footage, the #44 driver took responsibility and apologized.
While most experts deemed it as Hamilton’s fault, Richard Bradley said that Russell could have managed his race better. Bradley cited that the former Williams driver could have thought of the bigger picture, and tried to back out of it, to overtake Lewis later in the race.
Often, Russell gets criticized for not seeing the bigger picture and making some impulsive mistakes on track. His Singapore GP crash also showed his desperation to win, eventually leaving him with nothing from the race.
Nonetheless, Russell still does not feel himself as a subordinate or wingman to Hamilton. As a result, whenever he gets a chance to fight, the 25-year-old won’t let it go. His feat of beating the seven-time champion in his maiden Mercedes year gives proof of his aggressive attitude and how it works wonders for him.
