Williams lament losing "a real spearhead" in Russell

George Russell's departure to Mercedes has been lamented by Williams head of vehicle performance Dave Robson who has described the Briton as "a real spearhead".

Following weeks of speculation, Russell was finally confirmed as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate at Mercedes from 2022 a few days prior to the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

After three seasons with the Grove-based team, Russell is finally being afforded the promotion his talents deserve, providing a mix of emotions for Williams given the first podium in four years that was achieved in the Belgian Grand Prix.

“It has been a bit of a rollercoaster the last few weeks," said Robson. "Some really good bits and to be honest, now, at the end of a triple-header, it’s been quite tiring.

“But it’s been good fun. It’s been nice to have some fortune and some genuinely hard and well-earned success.

"In terms of losing George, we're losing a lot of talent, we're losing the current real spearhead of a lot of what we do at the track, so that will take some replacing.

"We're all a bit sad to see George leaving but on the other hand, very excited for him and proud of what we've done to help him get into that position."

Robson claims Nicholas Latifi is already starting to fill the role that will be vacated by Russell, with the Canadian joining forces next season with Alex Albon who is back in F1 after a year on the sidelines as Red Bull reserve.

"All that experience he [Latifi] is getting really helps" added Robson. "Bringing Alex in and all his experience with Red Bull, hopefully, will be really good as well.

“I don’t know him at all. Obviously, I know a little bit about his past in terms of facts and figures and all of that is really impressive and bodes really well.

"George and Nicky both know him really well so I’ve had a little chat about him with them in terms of how he is likely to fit in and what kind of things he will need from us so it all sounds really good.

“We’ve got all that to look forward to, getting to know him as soon as we can and start building the relationship ready for next year. It all looks really good and quite exciting.”

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