Russell admits role with Mercedes in 2017 is "secondary"

George Russell says that his position with Mercedes this year is secondary as the Brit focuses on winning the GP3 championship. Russell joined Mercedes at the start of the year as a junior driver, as well as ART in the GP3 championship.

Currently, the 19-year-old holds the top position in the standings, with a 35-point gap to teammate Antoine Hubert. Later this year, Russell will make his test debut in Hungary at the second in-season test, driving the Mercedes W08.

When asked by GPUpdate.net how he balances working with Mercedes and competing in GP3, he replied: "I've said really throughout the year, those two things are really separate for me. My main goal is the GP3 title, and everything with Mercedes is almost secondary.

"At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how well I do in their simulator or how well I'm developing their car, if I'm not getting results in GP3, they can't move me further up the ladder. Like I say, GP3 and ART is number one, and Mercedes is secondary."

Last weekend at Silverstone, Russell won his second race of the season and was delighted to see the support he received: "I was quite surprised, I saw Toto [Wolff] and Niki Lauda, down at the bottom of the podium," he said.

"I then went to see the engineers, who I have quite a good relationship with. Everyone was watching the race from start to finish, and before the race, they just give me a bit of advice with how the circuit is faring or what they've learnt."

Fergal Walsh