George Russell: How One Bold Step Launched His Career in F1
The High Performance Podcast
High Performance
4.8 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2025
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the current F1 season heats up with intense competition, we look back at a pivotal moment that changed George Russell's career forever. In a time when his dream of racing in Formula 1 seemed just out of reach, George took a bold step: he wrote a simple email to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, asking for a chance. What happened next was a game-changer, one that speaks to the power of timing, courage, and creating your own opportunities.
Listen in as George reflects on how that email led to a life-changing meeting, and how his story can inspire anyone looking to take a leap of faith in their own journey.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you love high performance, each week the episodes are available early, exclusively on the |
| 0:05.4 | high performance app. |
| 0:06.6 | Right now, Crystal Palace boss, Oliver Glasner. |
| 0:11.3 | I thought at the age of 16, the world would come to me. |
| 0:15.2 | It was only during that year that I realised you've got to go and look for them, you've got |
| 0:18.7 | to knock on their door. |
| 0:19.8 | That speed and thrill I got from experience at Matt Formula One car, I had added fire within |
| 0:25.1 | my stomach. Success and victory is such an easy thing to deal with. Those failures are the |
| 0:31.6 | times where you really question yourself, your processes. I don't want to experience that ever again. |
| 0:39.0 | That is the voice of Mercedes Formula One driver George Russell, and this is high performance, |
| 0:44.2 | the show that turns the lived experiences of the planet's highest performers into your life lessons. |
| 0:50.0 | Now, imagine this. It's 2014. A 16-year-old George Russell, fresh from a championship-winning season in Formula 4, sits at his computer and he faces a crossroads. |
| 1:01.9 | The dream of Formula 1 so vivid, so close, suddenly feels out of reach. Because despite the trophies, the sacrifices and the relentless pursuit of perfection, |
| 1:13.0 | the call from a Formula One team that George might have been expecting just hasn't come. |
| 1:18.0 | Other drivers are getting the opportunities ahead of him. |
| 1:21.8 | So in that moment, George does something that will change his life, although he probably didn't |
| 1:25.9 | know it at the time. |
| 1:27.4 | He decided to send an email. |
| 1:29.7 | And he sent the email to Toto Wolf, the man at the helm of Mercedes Formula One, asking for |
| 1:35.9 | just a chance, just a shot, just an opportunity. |
| 1:39.0 | And that's exactly where we start this conversation, one that is loaded for you with lessons |
| 1:43.6 | on how you have to make |
... |
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