Jacques Villeneuve left surprised at how far off the pace ‘super quick’ driver was this season

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Former Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has admitted that he was left surprised by George Russell’s lack of pace this season.

George Russell ended up with just two podiums to his name and finished 59 points behind Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Speaking to PlanetF1, Villeneuve was reflecting on the British driver’s most recent Formula 1 campaign.

After waiting in the wings at Williams for three seasons, George Russell finally got his chance with Mercedes when Valtteri Bottas moved on in 2022.

His first year with the Silver Arrows was brilliant, leading to him winning his first – and so far only – race in Sao Paulo and outscoring Lewis Hamilton.

It wasn’t the strongest car and unfortunately, heading in 2023 the team had failed to make the improvements needed to challenge Red Bull.

Hamilton pulled out all the stops in 2023 to get as close to Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez as possible and finished as the best of the rest.

Russell, however, had some bad luck and made some poor decisions this season and Villeneuve knows he would have wanted to do so much better.

One journalist described the young Brit as the ‘disappointment of the season’, but at least as Martin Brundle suggested, he ‘finished the season in style’ in Abu Dhabi.

Villeneuve surprised by Russell this season

Speaking about the 25-year-old, the Canadian champion said: “It’s surprising. Last year, he just came in as a rookie in the team. The new boy coming from Williams.

“All he had to do was beat Lewis [Hamilton], he didn’t have to focus too much on going for the wins. So it was a lot easier for him.

“Lewis had to react to having lost a championship the year before and, suddenly, not being in the car that can win easily.

“I think that got to him, it took him time to react. And that made life easy for George [Russell].

“This year, it’s been a little bit the opposite, because Lewis came back realising that he has to work like he used to work at the beginning of his career. And that’s changed the balance a bit.

“George came into the scene thinking, ‘OK, now I’m ahead of Lewis, I can fight, I’m one of the winners. That’s changed his mindset as well.

“He’s super quick, he’s been ahead of Lewis as often this year, it’s just… he threw away a lot of points in Singapore. That was bad.”

As Villeneuve suggests, Russell never seemed to get the rub of the green this season even when it good positions.

His performance in Abu Dhabi showed just how quick he is but he needs to show that consistency more often.

Mercedes have backed him until the end of 2025 and he’ll want to repay that faith immediately next season.