hoorashio

1. George is a development driver — not only for Mercedes F1 but also Mercedes AMG in developing their EV

George has been involved multiple times in Daimler's EV projects as a development driver. The most notable ones were the Mercedes Concept AMG GT XX and Mercedes AMG GT 4 Door Coupe -> these projects involve Formula One Technology in the form of battery pack & thermal management, software, powertrain, axial flux motors, and many more.

Both projects were mega projects led by Michael Schiebe (Chairman and CEO of Mercedes-AMG), Gorden Wagener (Chief Design Officer of Mercedes-Benz Group AG), Oliver Wiech (Chief Engineer for the AMG.EA platform), and Markus Schafer (former Chief Technology Officer of Mercedes Benz Group AG - specifically on the GT XX).

“So George, of course, you know, we are so grateful for all the time that you've spent with us making this just the perfect machine. It's an absolute technological monster and this is also just because of your effort that you put into it. That means a lot. Thank you very much” — Michael Schiebe -> George Russell @ Mercedes AMG GT 4 Door Coupe launch

2. George is the MAIN development driver for Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team's 2026 Regulation

He has BEEN THERE since they worked on the engine development during 2022-2024. He has BEEN THERE during the R&D of the active aero development, which includes simulators, data, statistics, and everything else. He is literally the one man standing from the DRIVERS side.

George is also a Mercedes spokesperson when it comes to the 2026 regulations -> which he def has to have a good understanding of because he gets asked about it a lot and up until this year, whenever there are complicated questions about the regs, he'd be the one from the drivers side dominantly answering.

This is him in 2024 explaining the regs and already becoming a spokesperson.

And this was Anthony Davidson, Mercedes development driver speaking on George (credit to @grbambi63 for finding this)

“Working with George in the simulator at the end of last year was truly impressive. It was essentially the start of the season for Mercedes' powertrain division, as a full 50% of its power comes from the battery. It required a deep understanding of the situation. It was a completely new world, and George was incredibly impressive in the way he brought everyone together and made it clear that he—I think very quickly—had heavily involved in this early on at the end of last year, when the team was still focused on the 2025 championship, but it was trulyastounding how quickly he grasped it all”

Had George Russell not understood shit about the technical side

1) he wouldn't have been Mercedes spokesperson on the regs for years

2) he wouldn't have been trusted to be involved in the development part of a road car by Mercedes AMG and other Mercedes execs

And it WOULD NOT make any sense that he "does not understand" because

He has been the fucking longest and the only man standing from the beginning to the execution. The data they used for the development of everything would have mostly been his because he was there while everyone came and went.

And literally NUMEROUS of engineer and drivers from Jenson to Shov to Mike Elliott to Resta to the engineers at Williams and ART to even the ones at Carlin VW, BMW, and Hitech have all said ONE THING

George is a very adaptable driver who has a very good understanding of the technicalities of a car beyond what ordinary drivers would do.

Not to mention, on a lot of occassion, George did not have to sit on others' car to correctly predict/deduce what had gone wrong despite those cars not even his own team or even use Mercedes engine. A lot of times he'd be the one who grasps it first and through that, he was able to take preemptive or preventive measures or mitigate a bad outcome quickly.