George Russell (racing driver)
Updated: Wikipedia source
George William Russell (; born 15 February 1998) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Mercedes. Russell has won five Formula One Grands Prix across seven seasons. Born and raised in King's Lynn, Russell began competitive kart racing aged seven. After a successful karting career—culminating in back-to-back victories at the junior direct-drive Karting European Championship in 2011 and 2012—Russell graduated to junior formulae. He won his first title at the 2014 BRDC F4 Championship. He then won the 2017 GP3 Series and the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship back-to-back with ART, becoming the fifth driver to win the GP2/Formula 2 championship in their rookie season and the second driver to win both titles in their respective rookie seasons. A member of the Mercedes Junior Team since 2017, Russell signed for Williams in 2019 to partner Robert Kubica, making his Formula One debut at the Australian Grand Prix. He substituted for Lewis Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix for Mercedes, but was denied victory due to a team error and a puncture after leading the majority of the race. Russell scored his maiden podium at the curtailed 2021 Belgian Grand Prix with Williams. In 2022, Russell replaced Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes to partner Hamilton; in his first season, Russell achieved his maiden pole position in Hungary and his maiden win in São Paulo, finishing fourth in the World Drivers' Championship. After a winless season for Mercedes in 2023, Russell won the Austrian and Las Vegas Grands Prix in 2024, followed by the Canadian and Singapore Grands Prix in 2025; in 2024, he also became the first driver in 30 years to be disqualified from a race win. As of the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Russell has achieved five race wins, seven pole positions, 11 fastest laps, and 24 podiums in Formula One. Russell is contracted to remain at Mercedes until at least the end of the 2026 season.