86 GP RACING MARCH 2020
to get themost out of the tyres, the car, the
setup, all the steering wheel settings. There’s
so many things you canadjust during thelap –
diff settings, brake calibration,brake balance,
enginebraking –and you have to work out how
you want it mapped, how you want touse it,
and Lewis excels in theseareas. Firstly, he’s an
amazing driver. Secondly, he’s understood howto
get the most out of the car,making the most ofall
these tools –and using it tohis advantage.”
Another consequence of being the team’s
senior driver is that Russell now must be the
most responsible hands-on voice in terms of
directing development, a role that requires
an element of diplomacy – or at least an
understanding of when to use the carrot or the
stick as motivational levers. That’s not something
you tend to learn on the way up the single-seater
ladder when your race weekends revolve around
maximising the potential of a spec chassis.
“Coming into F1 I knewthe driver had a
big role within the team but I never quite
appreciated how much influencethey have –
or the weight their comments have,” George
explains. “From an engineering side, 700 people
work at Williams and at least 300 of those are
listening toevery word we say and making
decisions based on those comments. If you don’t
say things clearly, if you lead themdown thewrong path, it can have adrama tic effect.
“Ultimately I’d say the car outweighs the
driver’s speed more – that’s very clear these days- but the wholepackage is important because
the driver has influence on the direction of
development and the frame of mind everybody is
in. Sometimes, when things aren’t going right, it
can get very intense in a debrief, and you can say
one or two things in slightly the wrong tone of
voice and suddenly you’ve pissed off 60 people.
They’re going to come into work on Monday
thinking ‘What am I doing this for?’ If you say
that thing slightly differently, they’ll come in
motivated and readyto g o for it.”
In this regard, Russell has also benefitted from
several seasonsdoveta iling his junior single-
seater campaignswith a test-and-development
role at Mercedes, enabling him to seeup close
how Lewis Hamilton operates. Few current
F1 drivers have understood and embraced the
driver’s power as figurehead and motivational
guru quite like Lewis. Even when he won the
world championship in Mexico two seasons ago,
he devoted a portion of his press conference to
describing how he was pushing the engineers to
bring forward developments for the next car.
“You’ve seen it a lot with the greats over
the years,” adds Russell. “I think Michael
[Schumacher] was very much adriver who really
got the most out of a team. Definitely Lewis too.
You can tell with some of his comments that
he’s passing a motivational message back to the
factory and that’s huge, because it doesn’t matter
how talented these designers are, everybody has
to work together and bond andgel. Andthey’ve
got to be happy and enjoy what they’re doing.
“I’ve learned through last year. I’ve always
tried to be as constructive as possible. Sometimes
you come in frustrated and you say something
snappy, and afterwards you think, ‘Well, that was
sort of unnecessary.’ And it has a negative effect
on the team. I learned to reel my emotions in a
bit because there’s a much bigger picture. You’ve
got to keep everybody raring togo an d giving
their best. In the end, I get a faster car.”“HAVING SPENT TWO AND A HALF YEARSWATCHING LEWIS [HAMILTON] FROM WITHIN [THE MERCEDES
ORGANISATION] I KNEW I HADTO IMPROVE TO GET TO THAT LEVEL. IWAS CONSTANTLY CHALLENGING
MYSELF, FINDINGWAYS TO BECOME AFASTER DRIVER”2020 SEASON PREVIEW
86 GP RACING MARCH 2020
to get themost out of the tyres, the car, the
setup, all the steering wheel settings. There’s
so many things you canadjust during thelap –
diff settings, brake calibration,brake balance,
enginebraking –and you have to work out how
you want it mapped, how you want touse it,
and Lewis excels in theseareas. Firstly, he’s an
amazing driver. Secondly, he’s understood howto
get the most out of the car,making the most ofall
these tools –and using it tohis advantage.”
Another consequence of being the team’s
senior driver is that Russell now must be the
most responsible hands-on voice in terms of
directing development, a role that requires
an element of diplomacy – or at least an
understanding of when to use the carrot or the
stick as motivational levers. That’s not something
you tend to learn on the way up the single-seater
ladder when your race weekends revolve around
maximising the potential of a spec chassis.
“Coming into F1 I knewthe driver had a
big role within the team but I never quite
appreciated how much influencethey have –
or the weight their comments have,” George
explains. “From an engineering side, 700 people
work at Williams and at least 300 of those are
listening toevery word we say and making
decisions based on those comments. If you don’t
say things clearly, if you lead themdown thewrong path, it can have adrama tic effect.
“Ultimately I’d say the car outweighs the
driver’s speed more – that’s very clear these days- but the wholepackage is important because
the driver has influence on the direction of
development and the frame of mind everybody is
in. Sometimes, when things aren’t going right, it
can get very intense in a debrief, and you can say
one or two things in slightly the wrong tone of
voice and suddenly you’ve pissed off 60 people.
They’re going to come into work on Monday
thinking ‘What am I doing this for?’ If you say
that thing slightly differently, they’ll come in
motivated and readyto g o for it.”
In this regard, Russell has also benefitted from
several seasonsdoveta iling his junior single-
seater campaignswith a test-and-development
role at Mercedes, enabling him to seeup close
how Lewis Hamilton operates. Few current
F1 drivers have understood and embraced the
driver’s power as figurehead and motivational
guru quite like Lewis. Even when he won the
world championship in Mexico two seasons ago,
he devoted a portion of his press conference to
describing how he was pushing the engineers to
bring forward developments for the next car.
“You’ve seen it a lot with the greats over
the years,” adds Russell. “I think Michael
[Schumacher] was very much adriver who really
got the most out of a team. Definitely Lewis too.
You can tell with some of his comments that
he’s passing a motivational message back to the
factory and that’s huge, because it doesn’t matter
how talented these designers are, everybody has
to work together and bond andgel. Andthey’ve
got to be happy and enjoy what they’re doing.
“I’ve learned through last year. I’ve always
tried to be as constructive as possible. Sometimes
you come in frustrated and you say something
snappy, and afterwards you think, ‘Well, that was
sort of unnecessary.’ And it has a negative effect
on the team. I learned to reel my emotions in a
bit because there’s a much bigger picture. You’ve
got to keep everybody raring togo an d giving
their best. In the end, I get a faster car.”“HAVING SPENT TWO AND A HALF YEARSWATCHING LEWIS [HAMILTON] FROM WITHIN [THE MERCEDES
ORGANISATION] I KNEW I HADTO IMPROVE TO GET TO THAT LEVEL. IWAS CONSTANTLY CHALLENGING
MYSELF, FINDINGWAYS TO BECOME AFASTER DRIVER”2020 SEASON PREVIEW