“Nobody could have predicted the events that happened” – George Russell thanks Dorilton Capital for allowing him to switch to Mercedes at Sakhir, adding that the Williams family would have been against it.
George Russell has spoken to Autosport about the events that led to him getting a dream race with Mercedes for the Sakhir GP. He thanked Dorilton Capital, who were progressive enough to allow him to race for a different team. He also added that the Williams family had been against such an arrangement in the past.
“Nobody could have predicted the events that happened. Telling me in the middle of the year that I’d have been leading the race, and that I should have won a race this year, and starting on the front row…because I didn’t even think it would be possible to be. I didn’t even think it was possible to get the chance for Mercedes as a reserve driver.
“We’d spoken about this in the past and it was a ‘no go’. But fortunately, the new owners were very open and they wanted to give me that opportunity. Potentially, to see how I would perform as well. So I didn’t even think that possibility [was realistic] even if Lewis or Valtteri [Bottas] were to miss a race. I didn’t think it would be possible anyway.”
George Russell on missing out on his maiden F1 victory
Russell also spoke about horrible missing out on his maiden F1 victory, where funnily, there were two mistakes, but neither of them his fault. It was instead the Mercedes pit crew and the Pirelli tyres which ensured Sergio Perez wins his very first F1 race instead.
“It’s not eating me up inside because I see the race almost as a victory in itself with how everything panned out. That’s what I’m trying to tell myself anyway to get over the disappointment of losing it!
“I think the pit-stop fiasco almost gave me that opportunity to go out there and show what I can do in a very difficult circumstance when the pressure is high. We had the race well and truly under control and then suddenly, I’m back in fifth and I’ve got my team-mate ahead of me in the same car as me, who I knew would be incredibly tricky to overtake.”
