Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #11 George Russell

Qualifying was where George Russell gained an important edge at Mercedes in 2024, which he put down to his confidence rising in situations where the pressure is on. He ended up with a small but still significant 0.148s advantage over a driver with 104 F1 poles in Lewis Hamilton.

Their head-to-head split ended up as 24-6, with only Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas having better. From strong starting positions Russell was often best of the rest behind the McLaren/Red Bull/Ferrari battle, and picked up the pieces to win in Austria.

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His other victory, Las Vegas, he dominated assuredly. But there were still racing errors at key times too.

Does Russell end the year as Verstappen’s biggest F1 enemy?

They never ultimately ended up trying to share the same piece of asphalt in Abu Dhabi, where Russell and Verstappen had engaged in a war of words as the event kicked off.

Russell felt he had to respond to Verstappen’s suggestion he’d made a meal of their Qatar Q3 impeding incident to try and gain a grid spot – which the Dutchman tripled down on a week later at Yas Marina – and his Mercedes team were only too happy to assist.

Verstappen lost his pole for the Qatar GP to Russell after impeding the Mercedes driver in qualifying

Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

Team boss Toto Wolff also called his Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner a “yapping little terrier” after Horner had said Russell was “hysterical” in Qatar.

Mercedes viewed this as the first shots of a 2025 title battle. And while Red Bull insiders didn’t agree, it’s all worth remembering given how long Verstappen holds grudges.

He’s keen to maintain friendships with McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri despite their contact in 2024 – apologising for the latter after their Abu Dhabi clash.

Late in that event there was that stage-managed GPDA picture politeness between the two vocal adversaries of earlier in the week. But, take away the PR, and Verstappen vs Russell is now being billed as F1’s biggest driver enemy spat.

Therefore, as it’ll likely keep coming up over the winter, here’s Russell’s main thrust from Abu Dhabi, when he was speaking to select media including Autosport: “I find it all quite ironic, considering Saturday night [in Qatar] he said he’s going to purposely go out of his way to crash into me and, quote, “put me on my f***ing head in the wall.

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“To question somebody’s integrity as a person, while saying comments like that the day before, I find it very ironic, and I’m not going to sit here and accept it. People have been bullied by Max for years now, and you can’t question his driving abilities. But he cannot deal with adversity whenever anything has gone against him.

“Jeddah 2021, Brazil 2021 – he lashes out. Budapest this year, very first race the car wasn’t dominant – crashing into Lewis, slamming his team.

“As I said, for me, those comments on Saturday night and Sunday were totally disrespectful and unnecessary, because what happens on track, we fight hard. It’s part of racing. What happens in the steward’s room? You fight hard, but it’s never personal. But you know, he’s taking it too far now.”