Higher hopes as George Russell prepares to debut new-look Williams

George Russell says he can’t predict where Williams will feature when the 2020 F1 World Championship gets back underway in Austria this weekend as the team looks to bounce back from a dismal 2019 campaign.

The prolonged break has been a tumultuous one for Williams in its quest to rediscover its performance after managing just a top ten result last year, with title backer ROKiT exiting the team in May on the back of confirmation the team is up for sale.

Despite this, pre-season testing showed encouraging results with Russell in particular appearing to be in the mid-field hunt for what would be notable step forward from 2019.

With more than three months elapsing since then, Russell can’t say for sure where Williams features in the pecking order but is confident it is better placed than it was last year.

“I’m really excited to get back racing and at a circuit that I enjoy driving and have gone well at in the past," he said. "It was probably one of my best races in Formula One last year so I’m really looking forward to it. 

“We’ve done a lot of virtual racing recently so it will be great to now race in reality and provide some entertainment for the fans that will be supporting us from home. 

“From a performance perspective, I don’t want to pre-empt how we will get on as we’ve only really had winter testing. Regardless though, I will be going out there to give it my everything.”

Russell will be joined by a new team-mate in Nicholas Latifi for the new season.