George Russell went into his sixth season as a Method 1 driver understanding that his group mate’s impending departure was a possibility for him to claim himself as Mercedes’ new group chief. He rose to the problem fantastically, usually getting essentially the most out of his W15 when the group was capable of coax its fickle creation into co-operating.
He needed to be affected person over the opening races because the automobile was not a race-winning proposition to start with. Nonetheless he began the yr third on the grid, from the place he completed an honest fifth. That was pretty much as good because it received for half a dozen rounds, throughout which he picked up just a few lower-order factors finishes and suffered a heavy crash at Melbourne following some questionable driving by Fernando Alonso forward of him.
In Monaco, Russell was the primary to get his palms on Mercedes’ new entrance wing and delivered, beating Max Verstappen to fifth place. This was the start of higher instances for Mercedes.
Russell beat Verstappen to pole place on a tie-breaker on the subsequent spherical, and arguably missed his probability to win the next day, although he salvaged third by passing his group mate. He led after lap one in Spain following a meteoric begin, although he light to fourth. Lastly in Austria Russell claimed the second victory of his profession, capitalising on a late collision between Verstappen and Lando Norris.
George Russell
| Greatest | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP begin | 1 (x4) | 20 |
| GP end | 1 (x2) | 17 |
| Factors | 245 | |
He claimed pole place once more for his house race however was cruelly struck down by a uncommon technical fault in a race finally gained by his group mate. However that was nothing in comparison with the heartbreak of Spa, the place Russell’s strategic savvy produced a hard-earned win, just for him to lose it to a technical infringement.
Mercedes couldn’t get their W15 to operate as nicely over a lot of the remaining season. Russell mustered a pair of fine restoration runs in Hungary (11 locations to eighth) and USA (14 locations to sixth), the latter after a uncommon crash in qualifying. He returned to the rostrum in Azerbaijan, once more because of a late collision between two different drivers, plus a cross on Verstappen.
Brazil produced one other ‘what may need been’ second. Russell led convincingly early within the moist race, however Mercedes couldn’t resist the chance to pit him throughout a Digital Security Automobile interval, and he fell behind three drivers who by no means had the prospect to do the identical. He lastly made up for his many missed wins with a managed drive to victory in Las Vegas. Arguably he might have taken 4 extra, and poor luck price him greater than the rest.
Russell’s snug margin over his elite group mate in qualifying underlined how spectacular his 2024 marketing campaign was. Mercedes spent the yr agonising over who his subsequent group mate needs to be, and little doubt the standard of Russell’s performances is a part of the rationale they felt capable of take a punt on the younger Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
RaceFans’ driver rankings are based mostly partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round in addition to different elements.
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