Road to Formula 1

He was born on 15 February 1998 in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, the youngest of three children. He followed his older brother into karting, started competing in 2006, and in 2012 won the European championship in the KF3 class. In 2014, his very first season in single-seaters, he became BRDC British Formula 4 champion: his first win came at the season opener at Silverstone, and he took five in all that year.

In 2015 and 2016 he raced in European Formula 3 for Carlin and Hitech; he finished the 2016 season third with two wins and three poles. On 19 January 2017 he was announced as the third member of the Mercedes junior programme, and that year he won GP3 at his first attempt with ART Grand Prix. In November 2017 he drove his first Friday practice sessions, for Force India at the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix. In 2018, again with ART and again at the first attempt, he became Formula 2 champion, sealing the title at the Abu Dhabi finale ahead of Lando Norris and Alexander Albon.

Williams and debut

He made his World Championship debut for Williams at the Australian Grand Prix on 17 March 2019, starting 19th and finishing 16th. He did not score a point in the Williams in his first two seasons. On 6 December 2020 at the Sakhir Grand Prix he stood in at Mercedes for Lewis Hamilton, who had fallen ill: he missed pole by 0.026 seconds in qualifying, took the lead at the start and led most of the race, but at a pit stop under the safety car on lap 62 of 87 the team fitted him with the wrong tyres, and then he suffered a puncture. He finished ninth with the fastest lap — the first points of his career.

His first points for Williams came with eighth place at the Hungarian Grand Prix on 1 August 2021. Four weeks later, on 29 August 2021 at Spa, he took his first podium: he set the second-fastest time in a wet qualifying session, and the race was stopped after a few laps behind the safety car, so the grid order became the result. It was the first podium for Williams since the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He showed his one-lap pace again in Sochi on 26 September 2021 — third on the grid.

Mercedes: 2022–2025

He has driven for Mercedes since 2022, when he arrived as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate. His first podium for the team was third place at the Australian Grand Prix on 10 April 2022. At the Hungarian Grand Prix on 31 July 2022 he started from his first career pole and finished third. He took his first win at the São Paulo Grand Prix on 13 November 2022, having also won the sprint the day before. He finished the 2022 season fourth in the championship — ahead of Hamilton, who was sixth.

In 2023 he made the podium twice — third in Spain on 4 June and in Abu Dhabi on 26 November — and finished the championship eighth. In 2024 he won the Austrian Grand Prix on 30 June and the Las Vegas Grand Prix on 23 November, the latter from pole. At the Belgian Grand Prix on 28 July 2024 he crossed the finish line first but was disqualified: after the race his car weighed 796.5 kg against a minimum of 798, and the win was awarded to Hamilton.

In 2025, after Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, his team-mate became Andrea Kimi Antonelli, a graduate of the same junior programme. Russell won both of his races that season from pole: the Canadian Grand Prix on 15 June 2025 and the Singapore Grand Prix on 5 October 2025. He finished the championship fourth. On 15 October 2025 the team confirmed its Russell–Antonelli line-up for 2026.

Away from racing

He races with the number 63 — the number his older brother Benji used in karting. Since 2021 he has been one of the directors of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA), which brings together the World Championship drivers.

2026 season

2026 is his fifth season at Mercedes, with Antonelli as his team-mate. The championship runs to new technical regulations with new power units and active aerodynamics; Russell opened it with a win from pole at the Australian Grand Prix on 8 March 2026, and on 15 March in China he finished second behind Antonelli for a team one-two. In Canada on 24 May 2026 he started from pole but retired; on 14 June at the Barcelona round he finished second from pole, and on 28 June he won the Austrian Grand Prix, again from the front. Then came second places at Silverstone on 5 July and Monza on 6 September, third at Zandvoort on 23 August and fifth at the Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madrid circuit on 13 September 2026.