Mercedes driver George Russell has discussed one of the biggest things he learned during his first campaign with the Silver Arrows, with it having come to light during the Singapore Grand Prix.
Russell’s weekend at the Marina Bay Circuit was a very challenging one and was arguably one of his more disappointing performances from what was a solid season with the Germans, given the circumstances the team found themselves in.
The 24-year-old started the highly demanding race from the pit-lane following an engine change, making for a difficult race for the British driver.
Russell struggled to fight through the pack but did eventually find himself within touching distance of the points, before colliding with Mick Schumacher.
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Given that he was fighting for his seat at Haas, Schumacher put up a fierce defence of his position, to the point where Russell told his team, “Schumacher is defending like it’s the race of his life, crikey”.
The Brit was then at fault for cutting across the front of the German driver, ruining both of their races.
Russell’s comment didn’t go down well with a number of fans, something that made the former Williams driver realise that he has “no privacy” as an F1 driver at Mercedes.
Interestingly, Russell admitted that he made several similar comments whilst driving for his former team, but that nobody “gave too damns”.
The talented driver has come to the understanding that having a lack of privacy is simply something that comes with chasing his “dream” of claiming a F1 World Championship, something he’s learnt through racing at the front.
“These are things that are part of the experience when you are at the front,” said Russell, as per Motorsportweek.com.
“Everything is under the microscope and that kind of comment last year [in 2021] would not have been picked up on.
“But I think there are two parts of it: one, it’s fighting your case; but two, it’s you just trying to offload some frustrations. And you do sometimes forget you are talking to the whole world.
“This is part of my experience of, one, controlling this [frustration], and two, [thinking] ‘do I need to say it publicly?’ And I think that’s one of the challenges of this sport.
“You have no privacy. I have chosen to be the racing driver, because my dream is to become a Formula 1 World Champion.
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“My dream isn’t to be famous, to be in front of the TV cameras day in and day out. My job and my dream is to race and to win.
“Some of these comments, this is to achieve that, forgetting that there are millions and millions of people watching at home and every single word is being written down and under the microscope.
“This is also an experience for me. As I said, I probably said a lot of comments like this previously over the radio, but no one gave two damns.”