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George Russell’s former Mercedes race engineer, Riccardo Musconi, has revealed how the British driver proved everyone in the F1 paddock wrong after becoming a Silver Arrow in 2022.
With Marcus Dudley now serving as George Russell’s right-hand man at Mercedes, Riccardo Musconi was initially given the reins to welcome the young Briton during his debut season at Brackley in 2022.
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The move up the pit lane for Russell came after three long years at Williams, in which he honed his racecraft despite often languishing at the back of the grid in backmarker machinery.
However, during that time, Russell made a name for himself through his impressive performances during qualifying. Over the entirety of his 59-race stint for the Grove-based outfit, he was out-qualified by a teammate just one occasion.
On top of that, he managed to claim a front-row start for the British constructor at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, following a last-gasp effort in torrential conditions. It earned him the nickname ‘Mr Saturday’, but he quickly grew out of it upon his promotion to the works team.
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Riccardo Musconi details how George Russell stunned Mercedes during debut season in 2022
During the fourth episode of Mercedes’ official F1 podcast, Musconi detailed his journey at the team since joining the Brackley-based outfit during their days as the works Honda team.
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Photo by Jayce Illman/Getty Images
After detailing his work with the likes of Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, and Lewis Hamilton, the Italian engineer then touched upon his time with Russell, whom Musconi served as the lead race engineer to during his debut season as a Silver Arrow in 2022.
He highlighted how Russell quickly got rid of his ‘Mr Saturday’ nickname at Williams by providing some strong results on Sundays in more competitive machinery.
“He arrived here with the label of Mr Saturday because he was very capable in qualifying in those Williams days,” Musconi began. “But actually, I was very surprised by how good he was out of the box on Sundays.
“He had very strong races all the time. Sometimes, in qualifying, the car was a bit tricky on Saturday, but he always made progress, no matter what, on Sunday. I remember in Miami, we dropped to the back of the grid, basically, after a poor start, but he still finished fifth.
“An epic drive, and then his first race win happened in Brazil, which was very emotional. I still remember it like it was yesterday, especially choosing the tyre on the grid. The team made a call. George was trying a bit to go in another direction.
“Eventually, he won, and we listened to him, but then when he went on the grid with those tyres, he wasn’t happy anymore.
“And I was like, ‘Look, let’s do the sensible thing. Let’s do what the numbers said.’ So eventually we made the right decision, and we’re quite glad we did that. But yeah, it was a brilliant day.”
Russell made waves that year by managing to beat Hamilton in the Mercedes teammate battle over the course of the entire season. The Briton was tipped to be a future title-winner himself after the feat, which he is hoping to cement this season.
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