George Russell reveals personal struggles with off-track Mercedes demands

Leaping up the F1 grid from Williams to Mercedes this past year, George Russell has revealed one of the biggest struggles was balancing the numerous PR events versus training, or resting.

Although a Formula 1 weekend, at least for the drivers, runs from Thursday to Sunday, there are often events the drivers have to attend in the build-up to the Thursday.

Marketing and public relations take up a fair time of all the driver schedules, but even more so when racing for one of the biggest and most successful teams on the grid.

As Russell points outs, every day of smiling for the cameras and fans means one less day of either training or recovering, and that’s something he’s going to have to learn how to balance better next season.

“It’s the time consumption of the things off-track,” the 24-year-old explained in a wide-ranging interview with Racer.

“For every one day of marketing, that’s one day less in the gym, or training or resting and recovering to be in a better place for the next race. That’s definitely taken its toll on me.

“I need to work out how I’m going to best deal with all of this because for sure, at times this year, I haven’t dealt with it that well.

“When I look at the amount of days I’ve been away, this year, external to all the racing, all the simulator, all the days at the factory is it’s in the 60s, the number of days. That’s two months’ worth. And that’s away from the track. And these are flights, hotel nights, on my own.

“It’s just part of being a Mercedes driver, but that’s definitely a shock to the system.”

Smiling made more difficult during Mercedes’ struggles

And putting on a smile for marketing wasn’t always easy as Mercedes’ struggled for form this past season.

“And when you get 22 races in or 21 races in and it is compounded with poor performance,” he continued, “you feel quite low.

“But then to come back and have a bit of a reset and have the best weekend of the year by far (in Brazil), that was another reason why it was so hugely satisfying.”

Russell claimed his maiden grand prix win at the penultimate race of the 2022 championship, winning the sprint race at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix to put his W13 on pole position for the grand prix.

He won that by 1.5s ahead of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes’ best result of the season.

Marketing events are part of the game

Russell does, however, concede that having to attend PR events is part of being a Formula 1 driver.

Acknowledging that he can’t do his job without Mercedes’ sponsors, and they in turn want something in return such as drivers being present at their events.

Again, he reiterated, it’s all about finding balance.

“I knew it was going to be tough in that regard,” he said. “When I look at the calendar, that’s a big part of it. At the end of the day I’m here, I’m a racing driver, and that’s what I want to do.

“For sure, there’s probably a better balance to be struck, but at the end of the day, we can’t go racing without our sponsors, and they’re a big reason as to why the team has so much success.

“So you just need to find that right balance and you learn with experience that you might not want to go (somewhere) before at this certain race because this race has been more fatiguing than somewhere else.

“And having events, making sure they’re as logistically as convenient as possible, so they don’t drain you as much because you know, that race (in Brazil), those last 15 laps, the pressure, the intensity of the race, it was mentally and physically fatiguing.

“You’re panting – I’d love to know my heart rate was, but I’m sure it was well over 180 for that last 15, 20 minutes, just non-stop, it’s like you’re sprinting.

“So there’s times like that you sort of wish you did a bit more in the gym and you were a bit fitter. But it doesn’t matter how fit you are, it’s always going to be tough.”

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