George Russell admits three years spent at Williams was ‘too long’ as he waited for Mercedes seat

Russell fought towards the back of the grid for three years before he joined Mercedes at the start of this season

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George Russell admits the three years he spent with Williams was “too long” as he waited for a seat at Mercedes.

The 24-year-old joined Williams in 2019 but was consistently towards the back of the grid with the Oxford-based team as they struggled to give Russell a car capable of scoring points.

Russell impressed in a Mercedes during the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix - stepping in for a Covid-positive Lewis Hamilton - and qualified on the front row last year at Spa in a Williams amid wet conditions at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The race that followed did not take place, technically giving Russell his first podium in Formula 1, and a matter of days later Mercedes boss Toto Wolff signed up Russell to replace Valtteri Bottas for 2022.

Yet Russell now admits he spent too long at the under-performing Williams team, though acknowledges that then-deputy team principal Claire Williams did well to tie him down to a long-term contract.

Russell told the Beyond the Grid pocast: “I think when we signed with Williams back in 2018, this was a team, bearing in mind, that had just spent three years scoring podiums, finishing P3, P3, P5 in the constructors’, and then they had a very bad year in 2018 where they finished last.

“But we thought that this was a team that at the time that can bounce back from this, and they’ll be back in the P5 to P3 region of competitiveness. So, we all sort of agreed that three years was a good period, fighting for points, maybe for podiums.

“In hindsight, three years driving on my own at the back of the grid was too long. But, unfortunately, Claire did quite a good job at the contract negotiations, and there was sort of no way out.”

In spite of that, Russell does say that joining Mercedes in 2020 - with Hamilton at the height of his powers - would have been “incredibly tough” compared to joining this year, with new regulations levelling the playing field.

“But when I look at this with the benefit of hindsight, I think joining Mercedes last year or even in 2020 would’ve been incredibly tough because going up against Lewis when that car has been evolved to suit his style of driving over so many years, that was his baby as such.

“Whereas now it’s a fresh sheet of paper for everybody, everybody is starting from scratch, and this was probably the right time.”