George Russell shares school exam mindset behind his F1 success
Mercedes driver George Russell has drawn a unique parallel between preparing for a Formula 1 grand prix and studying for a school exam.
The Briton was speaking on the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show following his home grand prix at Silverstone, where he managed to secure a second-place finish.
Following the chaotic race that saw him suffer a slow puncture before recovering to a podium position, capitalising on a late-race safety car, Russell detailed the meticulous preparation that goes into his race weekends.
“I like to do my preparation and work very hard on the week off,” Russell explained. “But then once I arrive at the race track, I go in with an open mind. I see it as revising for an exam and then performing the exam.”
He added: “Once you’re in that room performing and doing that exam, you can’t do your revision. So you’ve just got to trust what you’ve learned before. Unless you cheat, which I know when I was a kid doing some of my exams—especially my French exam—I was always looking over my shoulder.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Pauline Ballet – Formula 1
“But you can’t quite do that when you’re in the race car. So I think just trust in what you’ve learned, trust in your instincts, and just let it flow.”
This philosophy of ‘letting it flow’ has become a bit of a mantra for the 28-year-old recently, with team chief Toto Wolff instructing him to “just drive” during races. However, he pointed out that this approach is only made possible by the strong communication that takes place behind closed doors.
“He will give me a message that may not make a lot of sense to the average viewer,” he said of his race engineer Marcus Dudley. “But because we’ve spoken about this a million times before, you know exactly what it means.”
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