Russell: Young F1 talent good boost for my career

George Russell believes that the array of young talent succeeding in Formula 1 currently is good for his career, as it proves the youth are capable of competing. Russell is eyeing a race seat for the 2019 season, as he currently leads the Formula 2 standings.

The Mercedes junior racer thinks that Formula 2 has received a boost as Charles Leclerc is performing well at Sauber this year, having won the junior championship last year. And with the added young talent of Verstappen and Ocon in F1, Russell thinks its a good time for young drivers.

"I think currently we are doing a very good job in F2,” Russell said. “I hope some heads have turned in the past few races and kind of noticed what we have been achieving. I purely think we just need to keep on doing what we are doing really. If you keep on winning and keep on doing stellar performances, teams are going to be interested.

"F2 credit has gone up massively since Charles has done a massively good job this year at Sauber. Obviously in the past few years F1 has been changing with the likes of Verstappen, Ocon, Leclerc, these young guys coming in and proving they can do the job.

“I feel ready, and I don’t think there’s a huge amount more that we need to be doing. Just keep on performing, keep on winning and hopefully win the F2 championship.”

The Formula 2 cars suffered from a series of stalls this year, with Russell losing valuable points at a number of rounds this year. However, the 19-year-old said the issues have been the same for everybody, and is confident that teams will look beyond the title winner for promotion.

"I think this season in F2 has been a bit unique for everybody," Russell said. "If we were not to win the championship we can always look back and say we had a whole weekend in Budapest ruined by mechanical, we had the whole of Monaco ruined by mechanical, we had race two in Paul Ricard, didn’t start, we stalled in Bahrain. The list is just enormous.

"Everyone is having issues but we kind of are getting that unluckier moment, lets say, on tracks you can’t do anything – Budapest and Monaco have been my worst two. What’s essential is that I keep on performing. I keep on qualifying at the front, and if I am at the back, I keep on coming back like I have been doing. So I don’t think it’s essential to win to secure that F1 seat."