The last few years have been tough for fans of the Williams Formula One racing team. The Grove-based organisation have recorded just eight championship points since the start of 2018 and have not won a race since 2012.
Their last podium finish came courtesy of Lance Stroll, who finished third in Azerbaijan in 2017 and they are on course to finish bottom of the constructors' standings for the second year running.
It has been a dramatic fall from grace for the team that won races on a regular basis between 1979 and 2003 and who have seven drivers’ championships and nine constructors’ championships to their names.
Shining light
The one shining light of the current campaign has been the progress made by rookie driver George Russell. The 21-year-old has shown plenty of maturity since being handed a drive at the start of the current campaign. And he has played a key role in the improvements seen in recent weeks.
The British driver was the standout driver in qualifying at the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix after narrowly missing out on Q2. That may not sound that impressive but from where Williams were at the start of the campaign that is a huge leap forward.
What. A. Lap. 🔥🔥🔥@GeorgeRussell63 was SO close to making Q2. After Giovinazzi's penalty, he'll start the #HungarianGP in 15th pic.twitter.com/a63Bnd35Lv
— Formula 1 (@F1) 3 August 2019
As well as qualifying strongly, the youngster enjoyed a rare opportunity to get involved in some wheel-to-wheel action, passing Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat on the first lap. He was unable to defend those positions over the course of the race but kept Lance Stroll, Antonio Giovinazzi and teammate Robert Kubica behind him to claim a sixteenth-place finish.
Positive steps
It wasn’t his best result of the year but it showed that Williams seems to be making steps in the right direction after a long spell in which they only appeared to be moving backwards. Williams rarely exceeds expectations these days so Saturday’s qualifying session was a welcome moment of joy and will give everyone a huge boost heading into the final part of the season.
The youngster has regularly outperformed his teammate Robert Kubica but remains rooted to the bottom of the drivers’ standing on zero points after the Polish veteran picked up a point in Germany.
Move to Mercedes in 2020 unlikely
Russell’s performance has prompted some to suggest he could partner Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes next year. Hamilton is 1/20 to win the drivers’ championship in the latest F1 odds while teammate Valtteri Bottas has been overtaken in the betting by Max Verstappen. Bottas also impressed at Williams before joining Mercedes as the No. 2 driver.
Back in 2017, Russell joined Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport as a part of their junior driver programme but team boss Toto Wolff has insisted that it is too soon for the youngster to make the step up due to fear of burning him out at the sharp end of the sport. And Russell himself has also played down talk of a move. There is also the issue of the contract that Mercedes has in place with Williams.
Whatever happens, Russell looks set to be around the F1 scene for a long time and his monitors at Mercedes believe he could go on to be a future world champion.
