Desperate George Russell Walked In On F1 Big Gun Having A Private Moment For Extremely Selfish Reasons

George Russell hasn’t reached Formula 1 by squandering away his chances. You’d expect the young Brit to be one of the most confident personalities in the paddock. Surely, he carries himself so effortlessly. But there was a time when a certain F1 legend left the Brit speechless and in a rather peculiar predicament!

Back in 2009, a young George Russell was at the Autosport Awards being felicitated for a Karting Championship victory. That’s when he had a very strange moment with Ross Brawn in the men’s room, out of all the places! While receiving the 2022 ‘Moment of the Year‘ Award, he narrated the story.

He said, “Ross Brawn was standing there next to me at the urinals and I was thinking; right, this is my opportunity to try and further my career! So I’m standing there next to Ross at the urinals thinking I need to say something funny but I just couldn’t gather the words to say something to him.”

“But when I got the courage to say something Ross had already walked off.”

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He may have blown off his chance at making an impression on Ross Brawn 13 years ago. That being said, Russell quickly realized the importance of seizing the moment. And as soon as Toto Wolff came into the picture, the 1x Grand Prix winner pounced hard.

George Russell divulges an interesting fact about ‘that’ email to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff

George Russell’s PowerPoint skills are the stuff of legends. But what is equally embedded into Formula 1 folklore is that famous email he sent to Toto Wolff that caught the eye of the Austrian boss and, in a way, led to the Brit being signed up by Mercedes. Russell has now opened up about why he sent that email to Wolff in the first place.

Speaking to the High Performance Podcast, he said, “I thought at the age of 16 the world would come to me. It was only during that year I realized ‘they’re not looking for me, you’ve got to go and look for them’, you’ve got to knock on their door.”

“Toto’s not going to look at British Formula 4 and say ‘there’s a kid here who’s won the championship by a couple of points we need to sign him’.”

“I sent this email I think it was like 9 pm in the evening, he replied within 15 minutes with his PA copied in. They said ‘Hi George, nice to hear from you, it would be great to meet you in January’. Four weeks later I was sat in his office.”

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Have Mercedes made the correct decision by getting George Russell into their car? After Lewis Hamilton leaves, will Russell be able to lead the Silver Arrows’ charge at the front of the F1 grid?