George Russell makes Michael Schumacher career comparison after he ‘realised’ similarities

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George Russell is now in his sixth year in Formula 1 having spent nearly half of his career at Mercedes on the grid.

The Briton made his debut with Williams in the 2019 season and spent most of it trying to score points for the struggling outfit at the back of the grid.

After a breakthrough performance replacing the ill Lewis Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, it was always a matter of when Mercedes would promote their young talent to the main team.

That came in 2022 and with it his first win in F1 at the Brazilian GP, although a winless and scrappy 2023 season has put Russell under pressure to succeed. With the addition of 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who Toto Wolff is keen to push as the future, Russell is facing an important year in 2025.

Discussing his career to date in an excerpt of the book Inside Mercedes F1, Russell made a comparison to Michael Schumacher’s career after he ‘realised’ one aspect of his career.

George Russell compares himself to Michael Schumacher after realising he spent five years at Ferrari before title success

Schumacher joined Ferrari after title success with Benetton in 1996 and drove his first season for the Scuderia in 1997.

Despite being engrossed in a title battle with Williams’ Jacques Villeneuve, it would not be until 2000 that the German would finally win a third championship and bring success back to Maranello for the first time since 1979.

Russell compared his trajectory to Schumacher’s, having been just the second driver to race for Mercedes in their history who has not been a world champion.

“You see this great titan with seven titles to his name, but it was only when I got to Formula 1 that I realised he spent five years at Ferrari before winning his first championship with them,” said Russell.

The ‘remarkable’ difference between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton

There was a stark difference between Lewis Hamilton and Russell during the recent Sao Paulo GP, with the seven-time world champion only just managing to finish in the top 10.

The data from the race shows that Russell was far more confident than Hamilton on the throttle in the wet conditions, particularly through the slow corners.

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Karun Chandhok said Hamilton’s car looked ‘awful’ when watching the onboard footage, although its difficult to know what extent this had on his poor performance.

Peter Windsor felt Hamilton was ‘making things worse’ in Brazil with his driving style, which he felt was a result of a lack of ‘feel’ in his W15.