GP3 – George Russell: “Mercedes helped me a lot”

Except Charles Leclerc en F2, George Russell was also titled this weekend in Jerez (Spain) in the GP3 Series, ahead of his rival and teammate at ART GP, Jack Aitken. The Briton, member of the young pilot program Mercedes, clearly had the title goal in mind despite being a rookie.

« At the start of the year, Mercedes set me the goal of winning this championship., comments Russell, it didn't matter how I did it: either by trying to win as many long races as possible, or by finishing second in all the races a bit like Esteban [Or with] in 2015. I'm sure they are happy with the result. »

Third in the European Championship F3 in 2016 behind Lance stroll, George Russell approached this season with a completely different approach within ART Grand Prix which outrageously dominates GP3 and within Mercedes, three-time world champion of F1 in his first year as a young driver for an F1 team.

« I think just being part of the team, attending the debriefs with Lewis [Hamilton] and Valtteri [Bottas], to see their way of analyzing data and giving feedback to the team, it really helped me. I was also lucky enough to have four days of testing on track, two with the 2015 car and two with the 2017 car in Budapest. It really helped me understand the Pirelli tires which is crucial with degradation in GP3. They helped me enormously. »

If his trajectory currently resembles that of Esteban Ocon in 2015, Russell should not turn towards DTM next season but rather towards Formula 2. The Briton is in discussions with several teams, Prema and ART GP in the lead.

Find the story of Russell's GP3 victory in Jerez produced by our special correspondent in issue 2135 of AUTOhebdo, already available in digital version on all platforms, and on newsstands from Wednesday.