George Russell is yet to have a title-winning car at his disposal, making the challenge of setting targets which can be achieved extremely important.
George Russell has revealed the importance of setting “realistic goals” in Formula 1, to avoid suffering from a “psychological struggle”.
Russell has found himself in a unique position ever since being handed an F1 promotion to Williams for the 2019 campaign, with a title-winning car having never been at his disposal.
When he joined Williams, the Grove-based team was very much F1’s backmarker, making the Briton set himself targets he could achieve in the midfield.
In 2022, when he replaced Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes, the 27-year-old would have expected to suddenly be in a position where he could fight for the title, given the Silver Arrows had secured eight consecutive constructors’ titles.
Unfortunately, Russell had to quickly reassess his goals, due to Mercedes having struggled adapting to the current regulations.
That adjustment struggle has continued throughout the ground-effect era, continuing Russell’s trend of having to set goals which do not include fighting for regular wins or titles.
As outlined by the King’s Lynn-born driver, setting realistic targets is imperative to remaining in the correct mental state, and avoid chasing the impossible.
“I think you learn that you have to take those small victories,” Russell said on the Untapped podcast. “You got to adjust your goals to what is a realistic goal for this given weekend, or what is the realistic goal for this given season.
“To win the championship this year is not a realistic goal. Of course, we’re working towards that, but if we don’t achieve that goal, we shouldn’t be kicking ourselves, because we’re just not in that position right now.
“And that’s when we go into every single race weekend thinking, right, we think we’ve got an opportunity to fight for the podium here. If I finish in fourth place, I won’t be happy. If I finish in second, I will be.
“Or on the flip side, if we believe we can win this weekend, but we only come home in third, that might be a better result than all the other races, but you’ve underachieved compared to the potential.
You have to teach yourself to take those small victories, otherwise you’re going to get in a sort of a negative spiral of psychological struggle, and that’s only going to impact your performance later down the line.
“So, you’re not doing this just so you’re staying happy. You’re doing this to continue performing at your 100%.”
