2023 Formula 1 driver rankings #8: Russell · RaceFans

George Russell had spent three long years waiting for his opportunity to prove he was capable of fighting for world championships in a top team when he joined Mercedes in 2022 – and he made a strong first impression.

Although Mercedes were never in contention for the title practically from the opening test of last season, Russell managed to out-score his seven-times world champion team mate Lewis Hamilton at the first attempt and even secure his first grand prix victory and the team’s only triumph of the season in Brazil.

The 2023 season was supposed to be when Mercedes turned the table and became regular race winning contenders once more. But not only did that fail to materialise, Russell also had a much more up-and-down season compared to the consistency he showed through his first season as a factory driver.

Russell arrived in the new season appearing to carry over the momentum that he had from the end of 2022 as the opening rounds of the season saw maybe his strongest run of the year. He out-qualified Hamilton in Bahrain but lost position to him at the start and finished five seconds and two places behind him. But in Saudi Arabia, Russell had a very strong showing. He qualified fourth, which became third after Leclerc’s penalty, and was originally promoted onto the podium in third after pushing hard to stay within five seconds of Fernando Alonso in the closing laps on old tyres. Unfortunately for Russell, Alonso’s penalty was reversed, but his performance had not been made to look any worse because of it.

With apparent high confidence coming from Jeddah, Russell was outstanding in Melbourne. He was just a tenth of a second away from beating Max Verstappen to pole position and then muscled his way into the lead past the world champion at the start. When the Safety Car was deployed, he pitted for hard tyres to put himself in what appeared to be an extremely strong position – only for the race to be red-flagged, destroying any advantage he had. He never got to fight back once the race resumed as his power unit failed soon after the restart. He deserved to have been fighting Verstappen for the win, but he ultimately left Australia with nothing.

His Miami weekend was another formidable one. He turned a sixth place start into fourth thanks to a great start and multiple overtakes during the race to finish in fourth, the best result he could have expected behind two Red Bulls and Alonso. He finally achieved that first podium of the season in Barcelona after turning a disappointing qualifying position into third place to back up his team mate in Mercedes’ strongest showing of the early season.

But around mid-season Russell encountered a slump. A bizarre error in the Canadian Grand Prix saw him crash out while in a three-way fight for second place – the most embarrassing moment of his Mercedes career up to that point. Then between the British and Dutch rounds, Russell was beaten to the chequered flag by Hamilton every time on Sunday. Hungary was a particularly frustrating weekend as despite team principal Toto Wolff admitting Mercedes likely had the second-fastest car on track, Russell was knocked out of Q1 while Hamilton took pole. Although he recovered to finish in sixth, it was a significant missed opportunity.

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The second half of the season after the summer break started off in stronger fashion as Russell out-qualified Hamilton at Zandvoort, Monza and Singapore. His gamble to stay out on slicks in Zandvoort as the rain fell at the start of the race did not pay off and he was unlucky to suffer a puncture after late contact with Lando Norris which dropped him out of the points. Then in Monza, Russell was comfortably quicker than Hamilton across the weekend, finishing just one place ahead in the race but with a margin of over 20 seconds.

Singapore was his and Mercedes’ best chance of victory across the season. With Red Bull nowhere, Russell split the Ferraris in qualifying to line up second but was beaten off the line by Charles Leclerc. Later in the race, an aggressive strategy call allowed him to catch up to leader Carlos Sainz Jnr and second-placed Norris, but despite his efforts, the McLaren driver held firm. Heading into the final lap, however, Russell completely misjudged his entrance to turn ten and clipped the wall, sending him spearing into the barriers and out of the race. Furious with himself, Russell branded it a “pathetic” error on his behalf as he lost not just a podium but crucial points in the constructors’ championship for Mercedes.

The next time he qualified on the front row, in Qatar, he suffered another awkward moment when he collided with Hamilton at the first corner of the grand prix, putting his team mate out of the race and dropping him to the back of the field. However, Hamilton correctly accepted full responsibility for the clash and Russell managed to fight his way back up the order in punishingly hot conditions to salvage fourth place with an excellent recovery drive to cap off what had been a very good three days.

But towards the end of the season, he experienced another dip. At the Circuit of the Americas, Russell looked ragged. He picked up multiple penalties during the sprint sessions on Saturday and lost multiple places at the start of the grand prix, finishing over 20 seconds off Hamilton in sixth – though his team mate was later disqualified. Brazil was Mercedes’ worst weekend of the season, pace-wise, but a grid penalty for the grand prix for impeding did not help Russell’s cause.

By the time he headed into the final round in Abu Dhabi with Mercedes looking to fend off a late assault from Ferrari in the constructors’ championship, Russell had not beaten Hamilton to the chequered flag since Monza. But his Yas Marina weekend was one of his better ones and he was the stronger Mercedes driver for the final time in the season, claiming only his second podium of the year in third to secure second place for Mercedes.

Although he salvaged a late draw against Hamilton in the qualifying battle in that weekend, Russell was beaten by Hamilton in almost every other metric. While there is no shame in losing out to the most successful driver of all time, it was striking how Russell seemed to make more mistakes in his second year at Mercedes than his first. But at his best, he showed that Mercedes enjoy one of the absolute strongest driver pairings on the grid.

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