Russell won’t put own interests above team’s should Mercedes sign him for F1 '22

Russell has been heavily linked with a switch to Mercedes for 2022 in place of Valtteri Bottas. 

Mercedes is expected to make a decision on its driver pairing during the summer break, but there’s still no clues as to when it will announce who will partner Hamilton.

One factor that goes in favour of keeping Bottas is his willingness to play the team game and obey team orders, such as sacrificing his own qualifying to give Hamilton a slipstream.

Speaking ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Russell said he wouldn’t do anything to harm his relationship with any of his teammates in F1.

“As I said, my ambitions and goals are incredibly clear, as I said, I want to become a Formula 1 champion but I would never put my own agenda or my own goals above the teams, no matter who my teammate is and that’s the same at Williams now,” Russell said.

“I would never do anything to hurt my relationship with my teammate and I recognise that to be able to achieve your own goals you need the team to be operating on all cylinders and that team spirit and dynamic needs to be at the top of its game to just be able to achieve the team’s objective. 

“If the team achieves then as a driver you’ve got a shot but as I said, I’d never put my own agenda or goals above the team’s.”

Russell has enjoyed an impressive 2021 campaign - reaching Q3 on two separate occasions before scoring his first points as a Williams driver in Hungary.

“Very relaxed about everything,” Russell added. “What will be will be, one way or another and everything in the long run has a way of working out for the best. Every single situation I try and take in my stride and as I said before, I never believe in good luck or bad luck, you get what you deserve and you get out of life what you put into it. 

“My aspirations and goals are clear. I want to become a world champion and I want to find myself in the car that will give me the best opportunity to achieve that but with regards to the summer break, just going to enjoy it. It’s been a very intense start to the year, it’s going to be a very intense second half of the year. 

“My number one goal is performing on track and to do that it’s important to… I've got one week away training, the other week will probably be five days of holiday. Just making the most of that you need to recharge the batteries.”