“He won world championships”: George Russell reveals why his brother couldn’t become F1 driver despite having talent

George Russell is one of the most popular drivers in F1 today and is often labeled as a World Champion in the making. He spent the first three years of his career with Williams but could show little to prove his worth due to the team’s poor mechanical package. Finally, in 2022, he completed his dream move to Mercedes.

Russell had a very successful debut season with the Silver Arrows and finished ahead of his seven-time World Champion teammate Lewis Hamilton. The 24-year-old finished P4 in the Championship with 275 points to his name. With a more competitive car, he will aim for consistent race wins in the coming season.

Russell’s talent is very well known within the F1 community, but many people don’t know about his brother. Benjy Russell pursued a career in racing, hoping to make it to F1 but things did not work out as well for him as they did for George.

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George Russell talks about his brother’s racing talent

Russell appeared in an interview session with High Performance, where he spoke about his career and his 2022 season. He also revealed how talented his brother was in his junior career. He started karting at the age of 11 and won multiple British and World Championships. Despite all his talent, he could not make it into the world of F1.

However, he admitted that all his hard work and dedication towards the sport came because his brother was an inspiration to him. Russell’s brother Benjy is 11 years older than him, and he started karting when he was 11 years old.

Talking about the starting age of Benjy’s career, George said, “In our world, it’s probably five years too late. So he was a bit behind the curve. He was an incredibly talented go-kart driver. He won British Championships and World Championships. Unfortunately for him, he was probably five years too late. And he missed that opportunity to go into single-seaters.”

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Russell earned first career win in the 2022 season

Back in 2020, Russell filled in for Hamilton at the Sakhir GP, and almost won his first race for Mercedes as a replacement driver. However, an error in a pit-stop made by the Brackley-based outfit took that win from him.

Two years later, Russell finally had his first race win when he dominated the Sao Paolo GP from start to finish. His teammate came second in what was their first and only 1-2 finish in 2022. Russell, Hamilton and Mercedes will all be hoping for a strong start to the 2023 season as they look to get back in the mix for the World Title next year.