George Russell recalled his first race with the Mercedes crew, in Baku 2017, which prompted the team to break out a picture from his younger years.
Appearing alongside Lewis Hamilton in this picture, Russell is not sure that Hamilton saw the funny side when something like 30 copies were printed out and placed around the office.
George Russell not sure Lewis Hamilton ‘appreciated’ photo fun
Appearing in a Mercedes video alongside his senior race engineer Marcus Dudley, Russell harked back to the first time they met, at the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Russell was a Mercedes junior at that time. Hamilton, meanwhile, was competing in what proved to be his third title-winning season with the team.
With both drivers together under the Mercedes roof in Baku, a team member decided to have a bit of fun, which Russell suspects he took far better than Hamilton did.
“First time we met each other would have been… I came to Baku, 2017, that probably was the first time that we met each other,” Russell said to Dudley.
“I guess I was like the annoying kid as the reserve driver around the office, getting in people’s way and whatnot.
“I remember in Baku, it was my first race with you guys, in 2017.
“Evan, one of our engineers, had printed off a photo of Lewis and I from when I was, like, 10 years old, and he placed it around the whole office. He printed off like 30 pieces of this.
“And I think Lewis was more annoyed with it than I was. I thought it was great! This was pre-Lewis’s fashion sense, and I don’t think he appreciated it too much.”
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Russell would actually make his Mercedes debut in place of Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.
Hamilton tested positive for COVID ahead of that race weekend, and Mercedes borrowed Russell back from loan team Williams to replace him.
For a time, it appeared as though Russell was going to win on his Mercedes debut.
Dudley recalled that this was his very first race working with Russell as his performance engineer.
“Yeah, performance engineer, Bono [Peter Bonnington] race engineer,” Russell responded.
“That car was a beast. It was just so easy to drive that car. It was just like it did everything you wanted. It was so intuitive. Turn in, the thing would just bite, and the tyres were good, and it almost kind of felt like driving a PlayStation.
“I mean, we should have won that race. Led the whole race. Safety Car. Wrong tyres. Went down to P6, I think, came back to P2, was chasing Checo for the win, and then the puncture.
“Somebody didn’t want me to win that day. Obviously, that was so painful for me, but my life is no different today, had we won that race or not.”
Russell has gone on to win five grands prix and counting as a Mercedes driver.
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