George Russell appears to be like you within the eye and oozes self-belief as he describes how he feels heading into his seventh season in Formulation 1, his first as efficient chief of the Mercedes workforce.
“I do know my time will come,” the 27-year-old Briton says. “And I’ve simply obtained to make sure that I carry on performing. And whether or not it is this yr or subsequent yr, it’s going to come.
“And if I maintain delivering these outcomes, as I did over these final three years in opposition to one of the best driver of all time, I consider I’ll get myself within the struggle and hopefully a world championship to my title.”
Russell’s self-confidence is deeply held, and has been there for so long as he has been racing. But it surely has been nurtured by the point he spent at Mercedes as team-mate to Lewis Hamilton.
Final yr, Russell turned the primary driver in Hamilton’s 18-year profession to comprehensively beat the seven-time champion in qualifying over a full season. The pinnacle-to-head rating was 19-five to Russell, at a mean benefit of 0.171 seconds a lap.
And over their three years collectively since 2022, Russell completed forward within the championship in two of them.
There are caveats – not least that Hamilton’s ultimate yr at Mercedes got here after he had instructed the workforce he was leaving them for Ferrari at the end of it.
However, as Russell places it in an unique interview with BBC Sport: “The outcomes communicate for themselves. And I haven’t got something I have to show or present.
“I’m happy with the outcomes I’ve achieved going up in opposition to any person like Lewis.
“On the finish of 2021, statistically and by way of notion, Lewis was the best of all time. And I’ve had three years in opposition to the best of all time, and I completed forward of him two out of the three years I had as team-mates. And completed forward extra occasions in ‘quali’ and extra occasions within the race.
“If this was a unique time or a unique period, in the event you end forward of Lewis Hamilton, you are a world champion.”
