George Russell has become the Formula 1 driver Mercedes needed him to be after Lewis Hamilton's departure and it would not have been possible had he retained a weakness he has admitted was holding him back.
Winning the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend - his second victory of the season - was further proof from Russell that this year he has been the talisman Mercedes needs. He has the fourth-fastest car on average yet is fourth in the drivers' championship, has finished in the top five in 15 of 18 races, and has scored 73% of the team's points.
By every reasonable metric, Russell's been a team-leading, top-level driver in 2025. And made sure Mercedes has had the north star on-track that Hamilton was for so long.
Though Russell's potential is what marked him out as Hamilton's heir apparent at Mercedes for many years, there is a difference between being fast enough to lead a team and producing the performances required to do it.
"Probably a couple of years ago I was driving a bit more tense and probably over-pushing in circumstances when I shouldn't have been," Russell now admits.
"Now I just feel much more relaxed.
"When it was raining an hour before the race [in Singapore], I just said, ‘it is what it is, it's the same for everybody'.
"There's nothing I can do, so there's no point stressing about it. I think myself a few years ago would have been slightly different."
At times alongside seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton, Russell was guilty of either overreaching or losing focus. Gambling on the wrong tyres in Canada qualifying in 2022, hitting the wall in that year's race a year later, the 2023 Singapore crash (obviously) are some obvious examples.
"We've seen George in the past with these moments, but...not recently," said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
"And that's the step up that he has made also this year that these things don't happen again."
Sometimes those moments could be brushed off as just ‘one of those things', sometimes Russell would justify a roll of the dice by saying he wants to win – that's not always possible for Mercedes, so when it's there it's better to go for it and risk it backfiring.
That mentality became so easy to associate with Russell that when he was among those to punt on slicks at the end of the formation lap on a clearly damp track at Silverstone this year, it was no great surprise. The argument afterwards was the same.
"If you play it safe, you'll come home with a safe result. Of course that would probably have been P4," he said after finishing 10th.
"Standing here now, do I wish I had P4? Of course. But we wanted to be bold, we wanted to be brave. We went for a bold decision, and ultimately, it bit us."
And this one really was a ‘we' as Mercedes shared responsibility for it. There is no great harm in that because the need to be flexible and aggressive sometimes is key for both driver and team. The important thing is detaching Russell from wanting to take a needless gamble, or make a needless mistake. And that seems to have happened. He is, by and large, much more in control of the controllables.
Last season hinted that Russell had made a good step towards being a more robust, rounded and dependable driver. Being paired with Kimi Antonelli would prove that one way or the other and if Russell failed he would be undermined as a team leader and displaced as Mercedes' next big thing all in one go.
This year has brought more of the same from a Mercedes perspective: good weekends, bad weekends, the occasional moment of outright superiority. Russell's track record within that has been outstanding and this is undoubtedly his best season in F1 yet, not just in terms of outright results but consistency of execution.
"I'm a very different driver today to the one I was a couple of years ago, and I feel more complete, more confident," said Russell.
"I know exactly what I need to do in given circumstances. Of course, I was nervous before the race as you'd expect, but I didn't feel any additional nerves or any additional pressure [in Singapore].
"It just felt like another race, and I knew I had a chance to win, and I felt comfortable with that. I've said it for a while, I feel ready to fight for a championship. I feel ready to take it to my next step."
The peaks always come first for talented drivers who find themselves in good machinery. It's the consistency that top teams crave, the assurance that week in, week out, their driver will be one of the very best performers.
Maybe it has taken a year or two longer than his initial trajectory suggested, but Mercedes has been able to count on Russell being exactly that in 2025.
