17.12.2024George Russell at Mercedes: Missed sensation in spontaneous debut race

In the 2025 season, George Russell's Formula 1 career at Mercedes will enter a new phase. Long established as a Grand Prix winner, the Briton will become the designated number one driver within the team alongside rookie Kimi Antonelli following Lewis Hamilton's spectacular move to Ferrari. It will be Russell's fourth season in Toto Wolff's team after he took over the cockpit from Valtteri Bottas in 2022.

However, Russell made his racing debut with Mercedes two years earlier at the Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain in 2020. At that time, day-to-day business in Formula 1 was dominated by the corona pandemic. During the regular tests for the virus, not only the team staff but also the drivers themselves were occasionally infected and forced to miss the following race.

Lewis Hamilton was affected at the Sakhir Grand Prix. Since the Briton had already secured his seventh world championship title two stops earlier in Turkey, his absence from the penultimate race of the year had little impact on the outcome of the World Championship - but it did have an impact on the drama of the weekend.

In any case, the paddock in Bahrain was still under the impression of Romain Grosjean's terrible fire accident at the same place the weekend before. The news of Hamilton's corona infection caused additional turmoil and, above all, excitement about how the nominated substitute George Russell would fare in his debut with the black-colored Silver Arrow. At that time, with titles in GP3 and Formula 2 and strong performances in the defeated Williams, Russell was considered a promising talent for the future, who was well positioned as a test and reserve driver for the Mercedes team.

Already in qualifying on the "Outer Circuit" variant of the track, which is only 3.5 kilometers long, Russell put the Mercedes alongside pole-setter and teammate Valtteri Bottas. At the start of the race, he even prevailed against the Finn and from then on, his impeccable leadership work was brilliant. But in the 63rd of the 87 laps, the race was turned on its head - by Jack Aitken, of all people, who was representing Russell at Williams. After the current DTM driver spun at the exit of the last corner, the front wing had to be recovered and the safety car deployed. Mercedes quickly brought its two leading cars into the pits, but in the rush they swapped the sets of tires, which meant that George Russell had to come in for another stop. In the final phase, he was already back in second place and seemed to be able to reach for victory when a tire puncture finally dashed his hopes. He finished in a sobering ninth place.

The winner of the crazy race was Sergio Pérez in the Racing Point, who had been in last place after a collision with Charles Leclerc on the opening lap and still celebrated his first triumph in Formula 1. Behind him, Esteban Ocon in the Renault achieved his first podium in the premier class and Lance Stroll completed the podium in third place with the second Racing Point.

Exclusively for ck-modelcars, Minichamps has released a very special model for George Russell's Mercedes debut in Bahrain. In the impressive scale of 1:12, the bolide, christened W11, is around 48 centimeters long. In this size, all of the car's details, including the true-to-original cockpit replica with driver figure, are particularly well shown off. The model is limited to just 111 copies and is delivered in a high-quality display case.

George Russell Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 #63 Sakhir GP Formula 1 2020 1:12, RRP €599.95, item-no.: 123201663

プロダクト

George Russell Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 #63 サクヒール GP 式 1 2020 1:12 Minichamps

539,96 €