Williams head of vehicle performance Dave Robson says it would be a “massive loss” to the team if George Russell was to leave at the end of the season.
Russell has started all but one of his 44 grand prix’s for Williams since graduating to Formula 1 as the reigning Formula 2 champion in 2019.
Although he is yet to score a point for the Grove-based outfit, with a best finish of 11th, the young Briton has already earned the plaudits of world champions Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.
Russell has particularly impressed many with his one-lap pace, qualifying in Q2 at every race so far in 2021, and is under consideration for a seat at Mercedes next year due to his links with the German manufacturer.
Robson felt it would be a “real shame” to lose Russell without the opportunity to build him a competitive car, admitting his future beyond this year was out of his hands.
“It’s been fantastic working with him right from when we first put him through the evaluation,” Robson said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“It was obvious he had something about him, some genuinely outstanding talent to drive the car.
“It’s been a great. Probably frustrating at times, but a great journey to be on with him. Of course he’d be a massive loss – he’s genuinely very quick.
“I think we’ve all put in a lot of time and effort to help him where he needed a bit of help, to guide him, and it would be a real shame to lose that without really seeing the benefits of it in our car.
“It would be a massive loss, but I’m not sure it’s something certainly that I’ve got great control over. If we could keep him, it would be fantastic, but we have to see how that pans out.”
Russell has expressed his desire to sign a multi-year contract wherever he races in 2022, which Williams CEO Jost Capito would be happy to oblige to.
Having joined Williams during its bleakest period, Russell has played a key role in helping the team recover from its slump in form, a fact Robson was keen to point out.
“He can take a good amount of credit, to be honest,” Robson said.
“2019 was an incredibly difficult baptism of fire, and once he’d got his head around the situation we were in, he was extremely good at being clear about the order of the problems that needed tackling, and his understanding of the compromises you need to make was very good.
“It’s not just his technical input to all of that, all the work he does in the simulator and guiding those designs, but also the way he interacts with everyone and his positivity.
“There’s something about him. When he talks, people listen, which is important – provided he’s talking about the right thing. Perhaps right at the beginning he didn’t always get [that] right, but it didn’t take him long to suss that out and understand.
“He’s been a big part of it.”
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