George Russell: ‘I want to beat Lewis but that won’t make my season a success’

There is no doubting the intensity, the palpable will to win radiating from George Russell. Yet achieving success is a journey the British driver acknowledges is forged in the crucible of competition, where sometimes the hardest lessons are the most valuable. “I have learned that failure is important,” he says with the air of a veteran. “It can’t always be smooth sailing, you have to look inward rather than blame others.”

The 24-year-old is still a Formula One young gun, but his aquiline features and piercing gaze carry an authority beyond his years as he sits in his Mercedes team motorhome at Silverstone, preparing for Sunday’sBritish Grand Prix. The demands at his home grand prix are exhausting but there is no sense of weariness or that facing down a microphone is a chore.

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He clearly still feels the privilege of his place in F1 but, vitally for someone who wants to be world champion, also the promise it holds. He smiles when reminded of how he would follow his elder brother to the karting track as a child and drive his pedal car round the paddock, and what a world away it was from Mercedes, from the 142,000 fans who will pack the old airfield on Sunday afternoon.

“It is always really important to take a moment to pinch yourself and recognise the position you are in,” he admits. “It is crazy to think how this journey has evolved. But you can’t sit back and relax. You can’t just say: ‘Wow, I’ve come so far.’ I have come so far but I’ve got so much further to go.”

The ambition is clear. This is his fourth year in F1, after he endured three years in a woeful Williams car outperforming his machinery. After stepping up to Mercedes this year he