Russell teases karting academy launch with cryptic Instagram video ahead of 12 November reveal

George Russell is set to make a karting-related announcement on 12 November, after the Mercedes driver posted a teaser video to Instagram that strongly suggests he is launching his own racing academy.

The clip, captioned “Stay tuned”, shows Russell reflecting on his early years in motorsport over footage of himself racing karts as a child — including a kart bearing the number 63 he still carries in Formula 1. The video closes with the date 12.11.26, pointing to Thursday as the reveal date. Crucially, the post was shared in collaboration with a newly created Instagram account called “gr63academy”, a detail quickly spotted by fans in the comments.

“Karting was such a huge part of my life,” Russell said in the video. “I grew up on the racetrack as my older brother Benjy was a go-kart driver before me, but I started karting properly when I was seven years old. I loved it from the very beginning. I remember the pure adrenaline I got from racing go-karts. I just knew I wanted to be a racing driver.”

The 28-year-old added that the discipline shaped him as a competitor. “Karting taught me the fundamentals of racing and refined me into the driver that I am right now. Dreams don’t just happen overnight, but with hard work, dedication and the right opportunity, there’s a chance for everybody. Now it’s time to give back to a sport that gave me so much.”

The announcement comes after a bittersweet weekend for Russell at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Mercedes clinched the constructors’ championship at Interlagos, but Russell was left frustrated after a five-place grid penalty dropped him to seventh on the grid. He recovered to finish fourth, leaving him third in the drivers’ standings with 262 points — 17 behind second-placed Max Verstappen and just one ahead of Lewis Hamilton in fourth. Charles Leclerc sits fifth on 249 points.