Why George Russell remains motivated at Williams despite lack of points opportunities

Williams

Why Russell remains motivated at Williams despite lack of points opportunities

Russell is aware a 12th position could be as important as points in battle with Haas

Will Gray

Wednesday 23 June 2021 15:34

George Russell has revealed he remains motivated to finish as high as possible in races even when points are off the table due to Williams' tussle with Haas in the F1 constructors' championship.

British driver Russell is now in his third year with Williams but he is yet to achieve a top-ten finish for the team, with the team pointless since Robert Kubica scored at the 2019 German Grand Prix.

The same could happen again this year, but with rival Haas in a similar position, the final place in the championship could be decided by the highest finishing position in a grand prix in order to split the points tie.

Article continues under video

Haas had finished 13th and 14th in Azerbaijan to jump into ninth, but Russell, who finished 12th to promote Williams back ahead of Haas in France on Sunday, explained: “I had this in the back of my mind. If we’re not in the points, we need to focus on getting that P9 back in the championship.

“We don’t know if Haas will score points this year or not, but it’s making sure we finish as high as possible so we beat them even if we get zero points. So, P12, back in P9 in the constructors’, this is very important for the team.”

Russell frustrated by F1 reliability

The French Grand Prix marked just the 10th time in F1 history that there were no retirements from the race.

Russell described his drive at Paul Ricard as his “best race ever” but despite the impressive performance, the lack of retirements meant he still could not get his Williams into the points.

He added: “I was really confident in the car. We don’t normally do this. It’s just so frustrating every time we have a good race there’s never any retirement or incidents or anything.

“This has happened I think three times now where we’ve finished 12th or something and we’ve had a really strong race. But it’ll come. I am just really happy with the way things panned out.“