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Russell He also won his first and second free practice at Sahir on Friday after getting a chance to drive a Mercedes W11, although his teammate Valtteri Bottas had his fastest lap canceled after widening the eighth corner.
Russell was released by Williams after a full day meeting Tuesday before the necessary paperwork was completed Wednesday night. “I think it’s amazing,” Roberts said. “I’m sure I couldn’t have dreamed of a better start.”
“His performance reveals that we made the perfect decision to give him that opportunity.”
“From an athlete’s perspective, it is also a great opportunity for him and we want him to make the most of it. It will make you feel stronger, and that is exactly what we want, although you are sure to get more frustrated when you have to sit in our car. “
“Anyway, it also helps us improve the car, so we wish him well. The whole team is by his side and, as George has already pointed out, he is still a Williams driver and will help us again ”.
By the way, Roberts didn’t know that Hamilton’s coronavirus test was positive until Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff called him and suggested that Russell be the replacement driver.
A Williams He also needed his consent for Russell to leave, plus the backup driver Jack Aitkent had to be relieved of his F2 duties as he was Campos’s driver on the series. He is currently 14th in the league with 48 points and two podiums, both at Silverstone.
“I got up early on Tuesday and was already working. I didn’t even watch the news, so I didn’t know anything about Lewis. I got an SMS about it just before Toto called, then I opened the news and Toto’s call came almost immediately, from then on we started negotiating, ”said Roberts.
“We have been very close to Mercedes for years, they have been supplying us with the engine from 2014 onwards. So it was clear that sooner or later we would have that conversation, and in the end everything went well, without any difficulty, “he added.
“The only question about Jack was if we could take him to the party, but since he’s our backup driver, it was pretty clear. It’s easy enough to discuss this if everyone agrees on everything. ”Roberts added that it took a long time to discuss the details.
The question also arose as to whether Williams was thinking of another driver: “We were thinking about it, but as soon as we found out that Jack had no particular health or contract concerns, there was no need to look for another competitor.”
“I spoke to Jack and Toto at the same time, and I had to consult with a few more people. That’s why I told him you could probably come, but we haven’t reached the end yet. But he got really excited, suddenly he couldn’t say anything. “
Poor Jack, by the way, had to wait until the next morning before he got the news that he could surely jump into George’s place. We resolved all the legal issues about the two drivers at night, of course this part lasted longer than we wanted. “
Roberts added that preparing Aitkent was not exhausting as he knew the whole team. “He had sat in the car before, while driving his first free practice at the Styrian Grand Prix. We didn’t have any problems with the meeting either, as did George because we had the meeting set up and Jack had the whole game. “
“So Thursday morning, we stood by him to get ready, we discussed what was going on with the car and we also installed his seat. Trying out your first free practice and competing on Sunday are two completely different things. We try to go step by step with their preparation ”.
“We are confident because we know he is a good driver. He just has to lead, in a good way, we try to take care of everything else and we support him where we can and we expect a good performance from him, ”concluded Roberts.
An interesting theory about Russell jumping
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