George Russell went into his sixth season as a Formula 1 driver knowing that his team mate’s impending departure was an opportunity for him to assert himself as Mercedes’ new team leader. He rose to the challenge superbly, often getting the most out of his W15 when the team was able to coax its fickle creation into co-operating.

He had to be patient over the opening races as the car was not a race-winning proposition to begin with. Nonetheless he started the year third on the grid, from where he finished a decent fifth. That was as good as it got for half a dozen rounds, during which he picked up a few lower-order points finishes and suffered a heavy crash at Melbourne following some questionable driving by Fernando Alonso ahead of him.

In Monaco, Russell was the first to get his hands on Mercedes’ new front wing and delivered, beating Max Verstappen to fifth place. This was the beginning of better times for Mercedes.

Russell beat Verstappen to pole position on a tie-breaker at the next round, and arguably missed his chance to win the following day, though he salvaged third by passing his team mate. He led after lap one in Spain following a meteoric start, though he faded to fourth. Finally in Austria Russell claimed the second victory of his career, capitalising on a late collision between Verstappen and Lando Norris.

George Russell

BestWorst
GP start1 (x4)20
GP finish1 (x2)17
Points245

He claimed pole position again for his home race but was cruelly struck down by a rare technical fault in a race ultimately won by his team mate. But that was nothing compared to the heartbreak of Spa, where Russell’s strategic savvy produced a hard-earned win, only for him to lose it to a technical infringement.

Mercedes could not get their W15 to function as well over much of the remaining season. Russell mustered a pair of good recovery runs in Hungary (11 places to eighth) and USA (14 places to sixth), the latter after a rare crash in qualifying. He returned to the podium in Azerbaijan, again thanks to a late collision between two other drivers, plus a pass on Verstappen.

Brazil produced another ‘what might have been’ moment. Russell led convincingly early in the wet race, but Mercedes couldn’t resist the opportunity to pit him during a Virtual Safety Car period, and he fell behind three drivers who never had the chance to do the same. He finally made up for his many missed wins with a controlled drive to victory in Las Vegas. Arguably he could have taken four more, and poor luck cost him more than anything else.

Russell’s comfortable margin over his elite team mate in qualifying underlined how impressive his 2024 campaign was. Mercedes spent the year agonising over who his next team mate should be, and no doubt the quality of Russell’s performances is part of the reason they felt able to take a punt on the young Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

RaceFans’ driver rankings are based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round as well as other factors.

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