“Too Much of a Fairytale…” – George Russell Makes a Startling Revelation About His 2020 Mercedes F1 Sakhir Heartbreak

George Russell will race for the Mercedes AMG team in the 2022 season. It will be the first time, since debuting in F1 in 2019, that he will race for a championship-winning car alongside Lewis Hamilton. But this will not be the first time that he will be behind the wheel in a Mercedes.

Russell deputized for Hamilton in Sakhir Grand Prix 2020 when Hamilton got COVID. He dominated the race and led for most of it, but finished the race in P9 after a series of unfortunate events; Russell later mentioned he would surely learn from the event and become a better driver.

WATCH STORY: Lewis Hamilton’s Incredible Car Collection

I would have loved to have won that race (Sakhir 2020): George Russell

As reported by Crash.net, the young Brit stated that he would have loved to win the race and it would have been a fairytale, but it wasn’t meant to be. Russell also mentioned he wants to become a more complete driver and not be remembered by the events in Sakhir GP.

“I’m grateful that I’ve been in this position on a number of occasions to make me more resilient. I would have loved to have won that race (Sakhir 2020), but that’s not what I want my career to be remembered by,” said Russell.

“I want to be the most complete driver possible and I want to look back in 20 years’ time and say ‘that was an incredibly strong career, every single outcome had a reason behind it and that made me a stronger driver.’

“I believe that race in Bahrain, losing that victory, will make me a stronger driver. In a way, it would have been too much of a fairytale to have won and I probably wouldn’t have appreciated the achievement if that had happened,” said Russell.

The young Mercedes driver will have many more opportunities in his career to win his first race. He might even get a chance to fight for the world championship in a Mercedes in the 2022 season. But let’s see how he settles into the team for next season.

READ MORE: Is George Russell a pay driver?