Russell reveals physical scars from squeezing into Hamilton's seat at 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix

George Russell still carries physical scars on his hips from cramming into Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes seat for the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix — a race the Briton led convincingly before a series of disasters robbed him of what would have been a fairytale debut win.

Russell, then a Williams driver, was called up to replace Hamilton for the penultimate round of the 2020 season after the seven-time champion tested positive for COVID-19. Speaking on the SAP Significant Figures show, Russell described the frantic days before the race and the physical toll of fitting into a car built around two shorter drivers.

“I got the phone call on the Tuesday. I jumped in the car on Wednesday to see if I fit, and I did not,” Russell said. “It was Lewis and Valtteri Bottas, who were the two drivers at the time. They are quite a bit shorter than me. I’ve also got quite big flipper feet as well, which is quite tight in a Formula 1 car. And I was scrunched in, bent over, my shoes didn’t fit. I’m a size 45, like 11.5, 11. And I had to wear size 43 shoes to fit in.”

Despite the discomfort, Russell refused to admit any problem to the team. “They were asking me, ‘Is it OK?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, totally fine. No issues, no issues. I’m driving, no matter what, I am driving this weekend.”

The gamble looked set to pay off spectacularly. Russell qualified second, just 0.026 seconds behind Bottas, then led the race and built an eight-second gap before a safety car triggered a catastrophic pit stop sequence. Mercedes accidentally fitted Bottas’s tyres to Russell’s car — a regulatory violation — forcing him to pit again on the very next lap. A late puncture while he was fighting back through the field ended any remaining hope of a podium.

“I was on course to win the race and then it all got taken away,” Russell said. “It was really tough, but I also knew what I showed in that race was enough that that would probably seal my future with this team. So as I said, if my career had stopped on that Sunday night thereafter, it probably would have affected me until this day.”

Russell did eventually join Mercedes full-time in 2022, going on to win the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix and establish himself as one of the team’s lead drivers. The Sakhir weekend, scars and all, remains one of the most dramatic near-misses in recent Formula 1 history.