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George Russell enjoyed his maiden weekend at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve despite the fact he was battling no one on the circuit.
The Williams driver ended the race in 16th, ahead of Kevin Magnussen and teammate Robert Kubica, but spent most of the Grand Prix out on his own.
MORE: Russell: Williams testing 'double or triple the amount' compared to rivals
Williams is still pushing to make gains on the midfield, with Russell previously confirming that Williams anticipated that Montreal would be one of its toughest weekends of the year.
"Even though I wasn't really fighting up there, I enjoyed it," Russel said. "I was battling with myself really, just trying to push as much as I could lap by lap.
"We maximised the set-up, we made good improvements in terms of the driveability of the car. We just need to put some downforce now."
Rookie driver proposal for 2020 'not a good idea'
There is currently a proposal in the sporting regulations that would require every team to run a rookie driver twice in FP1 during the course of the season.
Russell says that it is a good idea on paper to give rookies more F1 experience in an era of limited testing, but believes it could have a damaging effect on their confidence.
"It's a great idea to try and give experience to young drivers, but personally I don't think it's a good idea because going into an FP1 session for 20 laps, these rookie drivers are going to try and prove what they have.
"You just can't do that without experience, so if anything it's just going to damage the driver's confidence more than doing good."
Russell added that after a couple of fly-away events, he is "looking forward" to returning Europe and get racing on circuits that he is more familiar with.
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (5)
Login to replyJuJuHound
Posts: 352
This kid is great. He is confident demolishing Kubica yet again. I wish he, not Ocon, join Mercedes for 2021, but not before. More experience in middle pack would be welcome - unfortunately except Force India (which in fact isn't available also) I see no place for him anywhere.
He will probably stay with Williams for another year.
Kubica should quit F1. His return is dissapointed. We can easy call it discredit.
motorthread
Posts: 33
Kubica is the biggest disappointment of 2019. I really hoped we would have seen some of his original talent.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
It's pretty remarkable that Russell is propping his reputation while driving a Williams. I suspect Russell is seriously fast, but at the same time it's possible Kubica is just so terrible that he makes Russell look spectacular.
xoya
Posts: 583
Let's just hope that Russell is spectacular, for both of their sake. :)
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Look at this comment Claire and despair. This is what your team is now. This, is what Williams have become.