Williams tried to block George Russell’s early graduation to Mercedes
Former Williams boss opens up about her attempts to keep George Russell in the team.
Claire Williams has admitted she tried to block George Russell from moving up to Mercedes in the early 2020s - and she doesn’t feel good about it.
Mercedes protege Russell joined F1 with Williams in 2019 after winning back-to-back titles in Formula 2 and Formula 3 in the preceding years.
Although Williams was a podium contender in the early years of the V6 hybrid era, a sudden decline in the Grove-based squad’s form coincided with the arrival of Russell, who failed to score a point with the team in both 2019 and ‘20.
However, he was still able to outperform the car and show his talent behind the wheel, leading to rumours about Mercedes signing him to replace the underperforming Valtteri Bottas.
A starring effort at the 2020 Sakhir GP, where he substituted for Lewis Hamilton at the German manufacturer, only accelerated talks about a possible promotion.
But it wasn’t until 2022 that he finally received the call-up to partner Hamilton at the German manufacturer, three years after he had made his grand prix debut.
Claire Williams revealed that Russell was keen on stepping up to Mercedes earlier while it was in the midst of its unprecedented title-winning streak in F1.
However, having signed a three-year contract with the Briton, she didn’t want to lose one of Williams’ most prized assets.
By the time Russell joined Mercedes in 2022, both Claire and Frank Williams had long given up control and ownership of their eponymous squad.
“George wanted to go to Mercedes in that last couple of years and I couldn't let him go and I hated that,” she said on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast. “It makes me upset to think about it.
“I needed him more than Mercedes and he was in contract. If I let him go, what message would that have sent? What would that have done to my team if I'd have let George go?
“He was one of the greatest things that we had at Williams. When you go into a negotiation with a team like Mercedes and they're not offering you what they should be for your A-star driver, then why would you just let him go?
“What kind of team principal would I have been if I'd have just let George go because Mercedes said, ‘We want George now’. That's not how it works, is it?
“[George] was clearly upset and it was really difficult. It was very hard to stand my ground because if someone comes to me and they're upset, and it's because of me because I'm a blocker, it's really hard – but I had to put my team first.
“As much as I would have loved to have made George's dreams come true, I couldn't at the time, and that was one of the hardest parts of being a team principal for me.
“And I always said to George: you will be grateful for this one day because it will build resilience in you, it will build strength.”
Russell had previously admitted in an interview that “three years driving on my own at the back of the grid was too long” but there was “no way out” of his Williams contract.
