Cowan: George Russell's Canadian GP victory a great Father's Day gift
Motorsports
Golfer Lee Trevino once famously said: 'You don't know what pressure is until you've played for five dollars a hole with only two in your pocket.'
There's also a lot of pressure when at age 12 your father sells his business to finance a dream of turning you into a Formula One driver. That's what happened with George Russell, who started racing go-karts in Britain when he was 7 and showed lots of potential. His father, Steve, decided to sell the successful company he had built selling seeds and wheat as a merchant in the agricultural business.
'It was hard,' Russell admitted of his childhood in an interview this year with the Daily Mail. 'From the age of 7 to 16 you are not mature enough to recognize what your parents are doing for you. My father was working every day from 7 in the morning to 9 at night to earn his money to take me racing at the weekend. As a kid you question, 'Where's dad?' Oh, he's at work. 'Why's he at work?''
'And then we go racing and he is quite stressed from his job,' Russell added. 'And if I was making silly mistakes, he'd be dead angry with me.'
Russell noted there were times his parents would fight, with his mother thinking his father was too hard on him.
Russell's dad must have been very happy on Sunday as his son, now 27, won the Canadian Grand Prix on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on Father's Day. It was Russell's first victory this season and the fourth of his F1 career. Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who was looking to win for the fourth straight year on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, finished second and Kimi Antonelli — Russell's 18-year-old rookie teammate with Mercedes — finished third for his first F1 podium.
Russell and Verstappen finished 1-2 in Saturday's qualifying session, while Antonelli started fourth behind McLaren's Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth Sunday. Lewis Hamilton, looking to win a record eighth Canadian Grand Prix, finished fifth while driving a Ferrari for the first time on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. Antonelli took Hamilton's spot after he left Mercedes and joined Ferrari this season.
'It's definitely a special moment to win on Father's Day because for all of us our fathers have been such huge figures in our life and racing career,' Russell said during a post-race news conference. 'My father was at a go-kart track today (in Britain) with my 8-year-old nephew go-karting and starting sort of the journey No. 3 of motorsport after myself and my older brother (Benjy). They got back after probably a six-hour long drive this evening to watch the Grand Prix and to win for him and the whole team, of course it's really special and it means a lot.'
Russell's father had no involvement with motorsports before his sons got into go-karting. It was a different story for Verstappen and Antonelli. Verstappen is the son of former F1 driver Jos Verstappen and his mother, Sophie Kumpen, was a go-kart racer. Antonelli's father, Marco, was a competitive driver and now owns the AKM Motorsport team, which has competed in various racing series, including the Italian F4 Championship where Kimi began his career.
This wasn't a happy Father's Day for billionaire Lawrence Stroll after his son, Lance, finished 17th Sunday in front of a hometown crowd in Montreal after starting 18th on the grid. Lawrence owns the Aston Martin team that Lance drives for.
It also wasn't a happy day for McLaren after Lando Norris collided with his teammate Piastri on the 67th lap of the 70-lap race while battling for position, leaving Norris's car unable to finish.
The collision made for an anticlimactic end to the race with the safety car on the track for the final three laps.
Piastri still leads the driver standings with 198 points and Norris remains second with 176 points, but Verstappen (155) and Russell (136) have now tightened up the race. McLaren still holds a big lead in the team standings with 374 points, ahead of Mercedes (199) and Ferrari (183).
'It was a good day,' said Russell, who finished second to Verstappen at last year's Canadian Grand Prix after starting on the pole position. 'I feel proud of myself, feel proud of the team, especially after this time 12 months ago when it was a victory lost.'
Russell still doesn't have a contract for next season and noted that winning the Canadian Grand Prix 'doesn't hurt' when it comes to negotiations. He hopes to remain with Mercedes, which is paying him US$15 million this season, according to F1.com. He has already made more than enough money to pay back his father for the investment he made in him as a young boy.
'Now we are in a world of unrealistic wealth with billionaires around us,' Russell told F1.com this year about his father selling his business to finance his early racing career. 'We could have lived a very happy life had he not done that.
'I have paid everything back that he spent on me,' Russell added. 'I made it clear that as soon as I made money, I wanted to pay everything off. It was about (US$2 million).'
An investment that has certainly paid off.
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