Aitken reveals he initiated contact with Williams F1 about replacing Russell

Jack Aitken has revealed he initiated contact with Williams F1 about being George Russell’s replacement for this weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix.

With Lewis Hamilton testing positive for COVID-19, Mercedes called on Russell as the seven-time champion’s replacement for this weekend.

Aitken will make his F1 debut for Williams this weekend, missing the final round of the Formula 2 season as a consequence.

Aitken admitted he contacted Williams as soon as he suspected Russell would be called up by Mercedes.

“Such was my impatience that I actually contacted the team and said, ‘OK, so what’s going on?’ That was on Tuesday afternoon. They just said ‘We’re assessing the situation, we’ll get back to you, just sit tight’,” Aitken said.

“So I sat tight for several hours. Eventually, it stretched out overnight and in the morning on Wednesday confirmation came through and it was announced half an hour later or something. So it all happened quite quickly.”

Williams has yet to score points in 2020 but it has had several Q2 appearances courtesy of Russell.

With the shorter, Bahrain ‘oval’ set to suit Williams, Aitken says he’s hoping for points should Sunday’s race prove to be chaotic.

“I’m just going to approach the weekend as I always do,” Aitken added. “I’m not really thinking too far ahead in the future at this stage. It’s more just tackling what’s ahead of us this weekend. So I think I’ve got everything I need to do a really good job and I’m just going to focus on that for now.

“The goal for the team hasn’t changed. We want to be trying to get up into the fight with the midfield runners and hopefully, if there’s a bit of chaos and luck, maybe some points. So we’re all going to be pushing for that, same as always.”