George Russell has a lot to be proud of when looking back on his maiden F1 campaign with Mercedes, but one moment enjoyed by the Briton out on the track this season is a standout.
Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton were on the back foot from the outset when Mercedes' 2022 season kicked off, thanks to a bouncing bronco new-generation car that was as wild to tame as it was troublesome to understand.
Despite his team's problematic start, Russell put his head down, endured the W13's porpoising and rough ride and focused on driving to the best of his ability, an approach that yielded nine consecutive top-five finishes, a series interrupted by the Briton's start-line crash at Silverstone.
But thereafter, consistency continued to prevail. And when Mercedes' engineers finally started to wrap their heads around the silver arrows' mysteries, significant progress ensued in the back half of the season, with Russell clinching in style his maiden Grand Prix win in Brazil.
©Mercedes
You always remember your first time, but it's likely that the final laps of his milestone triumph at Interlagos will infinitely linger in Russell's mind. The 24-year-old explained why.
"Having Lewis in my mirrors - knowing he was only 1.3 second behind me - made it all an incredibly high-pressure situation," he recalled in a Q&A published on the Mercedes team's website.
"I had my engineer Riki giving me those gaps lap after lap, just knowing that I couldn’t make a single mistake as that would have given him an opportunity to pounce.
"The moment I crossed that line it was a huge relief. Knowing that we accomplished that victory as a team, but also for myself on a personal level knowing that I had handled that situation and handled that pressure was something I was very proud of."
Russell's first win was an emotional affair for all the right reasons, but it was especially poignant because he was on his own in Brazil, as his family and girlfriend Carmen had not made the long haul to Interlagos.
"I was very emotional because it was one of the few races that I didn’t have anyone from my family or my girlfriend there," he explained.
"Calling them afterwards was really a special moment. Just the journey that we have been on together and throughout the past couple of years in Formula One but especially with my parents from when I was younger.
"Looking back on that race since it's sunk in, just knowing what an achievement it was for everybody who is part of this team and knowing that all this hard work has been rewarded with the first-place trophy, which seemed just out of reach for so much of this season."
©Mercedes
Only time will tell if Mercedes' banner day in Sao Paulo will have been a sign of things to come, but Russell is certainly excited by his prospects for 2023.
"Knowing the potential that we have within this team makes me excited for 2023," he said.
"It is no secret how fantastic this operation is in Brackley and Brixworth and what the whole team is capable of.
"Obviously after a setback such as 2022 it's really exciting knowing that we have the possibility to come back through and fight again in 2023."
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