George Russell talked about when he was almost on the verge of losing his chance at Formula 1 as BMW gave him a DTM contract.
George Russell was a Briton sensation in his younger days, and several motorsport teams showed interest in him. In 2015, he even denied an offer by Mercedes to race in F3 with Volkswagen’s Carlin team.
A year later, BMW showed interest in him and offered him a contract in DTM. But here came Mercedes again after getting impressed by him during a test.
However, Mercedes had a condition, and if he went to BMW, they would not be knocking on his door ever again. So, Russell was in a dilemma, as at that stage, he was nowhere to be sure whether he’d make it to F1 or not.
“It was absolutely clear from Mercedes. They said, ‘If you sign with BMW, there won’t be an option with Mercedes in the future,'” the former Williams driver said.
“So the deal on the table from Mercedes was [to] race in Formula 3 for one more year with a Mercedes-backed team, which was Hitech, and come and do all of the simulator work for Mercedes F1: ‘We’ll see how you get on, see how you’re performing on the track, how you’re performing off track, and we’ll make a decision in October.'”
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The high-risk, high reward for George Russell
Russell revealed that Mercedes at that time gave no guarantee to his future. On the other hand, he once had a straight call to DTM. So, it was tough for him to figure out.
“‘There’s a chance we might not take you, but a chance we will take you. But if you sign the BMW contract, we’re out.’ So I’ve got this contract on the table from BMW, which is to go and race DTM, which at the time was probably the best championship after Formula 1.
“I was a 16-year-old at the time, 16/17 years old, with a lot of money on the table, and it was all quite shocking. It all came so sudden. I’ve done this test that went incredibly well, [and] the contract’s on the table three days later.”
“I’ve not really had any communications with F1 teams, and the conversations with Toto are positive, but not too sure if it’s going to lead to something but this is on the table now, and a decision needed to be taken,” he said.
“Suddenly Mercedes pick up the phone, but they weren’t offering anything concrete, it was, ‘You’ve got to take a chance.’ They might turn around and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ But then the BMW door is closed as well.”
“But the big difference is this is Mercedes and that was Formula 1, and BMW was DTM. I was a 17-year-old and you had to take that risk. I guess if it didn’t work out I’d potentially be regretting it, but it worked out.”
