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George Russell is now the leading man at Mercedes and got his first win of this Formula 1 season at the Canadian Grand Prix last time out. The British driver has taken up the guard from seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton with aplomb on track, but working with the 27-year-old is supposedly another matter.

A phenom with Williams, Russell was recruited by the Silver Arrows in 2022 and competed alongside Hamilton until the 40-year-old's Ferrari departure this year. Now, with young gun Kimi Antonelli in the back seat, Russell is the leading driver in Brackley and has been producing results to back that up. In the past, there have been plenty of insights shed into what it's like to work with and be around Russell, including the driver himself admitting he's tough to work with, and an ex-Mercedes engineer suggesting he was more 'mature' than former colleague Hamilton.

Whilst at Williams, the Grove team's former CEO, Jost Capito, admitted that the endless demands made by a young, 23-year-old Russell made him tough to work with, but in a positive way.

"It makes it not easy to work with him because he demands a lot," admitted Capito. "But I love the drivers who demand a lot and really challenge the team and are never happy, because those are the guys that will be World Champions in the future."

Russell was questioned about this admission and echoed it, telling Express Sport: "If you're demanding, I guess it's got to be in a constructive way and I'm glad they see it that way. I'm not easy to work with, I'm always pushing these guys for more in every single aspect."

After making the move to Mercedes in 2022, Russell quickly tasted race victory at Interlagos and finished ahead of his team-mate in the Drivers' Championship that year, ending in fourth.

He would spend two more seasons with Hamilton, and Philip Brandle, an ex-Brackley engineer, opened up last year about how, in some ways, Russell made the perennial world champion look 'immature.'

"What sets Lewis apart is simply his incredible feel for the car," Brandle told German outlet Motorsport-Total. "I would say that in terms of data and technology, he is perhaps not as mature as other drivers, such as Nico Rosberg or now perhaps George Russell."

Matt Whyman, an author who penned a book portraying life inside Mercedes in 2024, also spoke about what Russell was like behind the scenes, and somewhat agreed, telling the Mirror: "George is a lovely guy. I think he is very, very smart, very switched on, very driven.

"Where George is very prescriptive and very lyrical and describes things in a very accurate way, Lewis is much more emotional about his description of what is going on with the car.

"It is how he feels - is he happy with this, is he not happy with this? It is very interesting listening to the difference between them, yet they both provide this raft of information."

With Hamilton now donning Ferrari red, and Russell left to pick up and superbly glue the pieces back together, more recent depictions paint a picture of a confident leader.

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said this of the 27-year-old in April: "He just seems to be very relaxed in his position in the team now and he's just going about getting the points, trying to qualify as well as he can. He's pushing us hard to improve and he's doing a lot of work himself."

Now, with a 2025 race win under his belt, Russell heads the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring looking to cement a championship charge in a race he won last year, currently 62 points behind leader Oscar Piastri.