Claire Williams Reveals Struggle To Keep ‘A-Star Driver’ Russell At Williams

In a recent appearance on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, former Williams Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams candidly discussed the challenge she faced in retaining George Russell at Williams for three seasons, effectively hindering his potential move to the front-running Mercedes team.

Russell, who entered Formula 1 in 2019 as the reigning F2 champion alongside Alex Albon and Lando Norris, endured two pointless seasons with Williams while his peers found success at Red Bull and McLaren respectively. Despite Mercedes’ keen interest in securing Russell alongside Lewis Hamilton, Williams stood her ground to keep the promising young driver.

“George wanted to go to Mercedes in that last couple of years and I couldn’t let him go and I hated that,” Williams admitted. “It makes me upset to think about it. I needed him, I felt, more than Mercedes and he was in contract. If I let him go, what message would that have sent? What would that have done to my team if I’d have let George go?”

She emphasized Russell’s importance to the team, stating, “He was one of the greatest things that we had at Williams. When you go into a negotiation with a team like Mercedes and they’re not offering you what they should be for your A-star driver, then why would you just let him go? What kind of Team Principal would I have been if I’d have just let George go because Mercedes said, ‘we want George now’. That’s not how it works, is it?”

Williams acknowledged the emotional toll of the situation, saying, “[George] was clearly upset and it was really difficult. It was very hard to stand my ground because if someone comes to me and they’re upset, and it’s because of me because I’m a blocker, it’s really hard – but I had to put my team first.”

She added, “As much as I would have loved to have made George’s dreams come true, I couldn’t at the time, and that was one of the hardest parts of being a Team Principal for me. And I always said to George: you will be grateful for this one day because it will build resilience in you, it will build strength.”

Despite the challenges, Williams believes that Russell, who eventually joined Mercedes in 2022, had the greatest potential among the drivers she worked with. “I’ve watched the start of this season. George is on a different level. And this is what I think you see with drivers and what you’ve seen with Max [Verstappen] over the past two or three years, they tip into that zone of just absolute superstardom, and George is there now.”