Russell delivered an impressive performance in qualifying on Saturday and finished in 11th place. He finished within eight thousandths of a second of a Q3 place, but thanks to Yuki Tsunoda’s starting penalty he still moved into the top 10.
Early contact between Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc lifted Russell to eighth place early and he held the position well. He was the leading midfielder on Medium, which enabled him to prevail over Fernando Alonso in seventh place over the course of the stint.
But then difficulties began to brew. On lap 17, Russell was informed by Williams that he was “moving to Plan B for reliability reasons”. It was an early warning of the problem that his race was going to end. Russell said he was “confused” by the news that “we had a great race”.
Russell boxed at the end of lap 25, but when the team fitted a set of hard tires hoping to get him to the end, some extra mechanics went to work to inflate the car. It resulted in an 18 second stop that dropped him into the sequence.
Russell was forced to come on the next lap for the same problem, so he addressed the problem in 19th place on the track before Williams finally called the time for his race on lap 36.
“I saw that they had to top up the pneumatic pressure that was running out and they topped it up and it went back,” said Russell.
“A fairly rare problem that the team hasn’t seen in a long time.”
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The mood in the Williams camp was immediately clear. Russell jumped out of his car and did his lap to say thank you, but many mechanics were left head in their hands knowing a great opportunity had passed.
Russell rightly called it “typical”. After a perfect race in France, which would normally have been enough for points, he only finished 12th as all 20 cars came home, when Russell was in the top 10 materials his car had retired.
Russell said the result could have been “massive” for Williams and predicted that he could have finished seventh. While the Ferrari’s pace was so good that Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc would probably have overtaken it, a P9 would have been enough to lift Williams not only over Haas but also over Alfa Romeo in the constructors’ championship.
The “Class C” fight might not be very alluring to the fans, but it is all for the hundreds of men and women who work on these three teams. Eighth versus tenth place is worth a huge prize money. For Williams in particular, this would also be a massive boost to morale after three seasons as the F1 cellar team.
The points would probably mean more to Williams than to Russell. We all know his star qualities and that he is set for an exceptionally bright future in Formula 1. Even if an underdog result on his résumé may look good on a theoretical move to Mercedes in the future, it is unlikely to make or break a decision.
His focus was on the fight at the top, but Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff kept an eye on the performance of his star junior. “I saw that George was right in the top 10, and fast,” said Wolff. “When I saw the car break down, it was a great shame for Williams and for himself.
“But nobody doubts his speed and quality as a driver. It’s a shame for Williams not to have taken home a lot of points, which would have made a big difference in the championship. “
Fernando Alonso was a great advocate of Russell’s talents and called him a future world champion. But was he surprised to see Williams lurking so close in his mirrors on Sunday?
“No, not surprised,” said Alonso. “I think he was quick at the Williams on Friday. It seems they are generally quick at this track so I expected a strong race from them but unfortunately he had to give up.
“Next weekend I would expect Williams to be very close again.”
The salvation of Russell’s outstanding achievement is that he can do it all again next weekend. Williams will not have to leave Austria for another 12 months to see whether the route fits the car, but will get a second bite of the cherry.
The team did a good job tweaking the set-up for the Red Bull Ring and Russell was in a good groove all weekend which gave him hope for the weekend ahead.
“We have a different mix of tires which will make things interesting,” said Russell. “We know that the C5s are obviously very sensitive. It’s going to mess things up in the race with the deg.
“But yes, we have to fight for at least Q2 again, push for the rear end of the top 10 and then try to make the best of the race. I think we’re doing a really good job at it right now. And it will definitely come over.
“But a day like today could have cemented P8 with the designers. Alfa doesn’t look that strong these days. We could probably have picked up four or six points today, which is pretty massive. “
As much as Russell and Williams regret their bad luck, the performance shows that the battle for eighth place is far from over.
If anything, Williams could be in the pound seat around this time next week should it do as it did on Sunday – and Russell maybe deliver his breakout points with the team.
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