Mercedes driver George Russell has opened up on his role as a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) and made a damning admission about it amid FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem shutting down one of his requests.
The 2024 Formula 1 season has recently concluded with Max Verstappen claiming his fourth consecutive drivers’ championship.
However, Verstappen’s Red Bull team lost their constructors’ crown as they slipped to third in the standings behind second placed Ferrari and new champions McLaren, who won that championship for the first time in 26 years.
Red Bull losing the constructors’ title was principally down to the underperformance of Sergio Perez, who finished eighth in the drivers’ standings and whom had just over a third of the points team-mate Verstappen achieved.
Perez has subsequently lost his Red Bull seat following the season’s conclusion and has been replaced by Liam Lawson for 2025, who has moved up to the senior team from Racing Bulls, Red Bull’s junior outfit.
Four teams won a Grand Prix in the 2024 season and that included Mercedes through drivers Lewis Hamilton and Russell.
The 26-year-old Russell claimed victories in Austria and Las Vegas, while he also took the chequered flag in first place in Belgium but was later disqualified for having an underweight car.
Russell is also a director of the GPDA, a role he has held since 2021 and helps to relay concerns from the drivers on their behalf regarding a range of subjects including safety and racing quality, amongst others, to the FIA.
Earlier this year, the GPDA released a statement on its Instagram account which hit out at the FIA over recent race decisions and the conduct of president Ben Sulayem, particularly his stance on swearing and Verstappen being handed community service as a result of using expletives in an FIA press conference.
Ben Sulayem responded by appearing to take a dig at Russell over his request, pointing out that he does not tell the drivers how to spend the big wages they are given to compete in the sport.
And Russell has now admitted that he never expected to be doing so much in his role as a GPDA director and for it to get ‘so political’ when he believed it would be more focused on matters on the track rather than off it.
As per Autosport, Russell said: “When I signed up in my role as GPDA [director], I never expected to have so much on my hands and for it to be so political.
“I don’t really understand any of this side of the sport. And it was more from a sporting perspective and safety perspective that I wanted to get my hands dirty with.
“Whereas, now, it seems all we’re talking about is the politics of the sport.
“I don’t want to comment too much on it [the FIA’s compliance system changes] because I’m not educated enough to make those assumptions.
“But I think what it’s raised [is that] all the drives are united, that solely we want the best for the sport. We want transparency. And we want to help the FIA and as simple as that.”
