Why George Russell's former schoolteacher says he was destined for Formula 1 success

A teacher at George Russell's former school has said the F1 driver's "resilience and determination" to succeed was clear from an early age.

The 24-year-old claimed his first grand prix victory at Brazil's Interlagos circuit on Sunday, ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

It has been an incredible journey for Russell who grew up in the Fens on the Norfolk and Cambridgeshire border and was a student as Wisbech Grammar School.

The school is proud of its former pupil and his stardom has inspired the launch of a Formula One club, where they debrief his races.

Dr Kevin Mann, assistant headteacher and one of Russell's former teachers, said his rise to the top of the sport had not been a surprise to those that know him.

"Right from the beginning we could see that he was a lad who had just huge burning ambition, and loved nothing more than to drive," said Dr Mann.

"When he arrived he was karting and you could see that he was a young man who wanted to go on and achieve great things."

One of Dr Mann's favourite stories about Russell as a schoolboy was when he was asked to take part in a design and technology challenge to drive as many laps as possible on a single battery.

As the challenge involved driving slowly, Russell was not impressed.

"George Russell had no interest in being involved in that club whatsoever because all he wanted to do was to drive that car as fast as he possibly could - and that would use too much energy," said Dr Mann.

"Even in an area like that, George Russell just wants to go fast."

Russell's success is infectious in Wisbech and has inspired the whole school.

Lucy Reed, a student at Wisbech Grammar School, said: "There's been a real buzz going around school.

"It's what everyone's been talking about. You come in to lessons and everyone's saying George Russell! George Russell's actually won his first race."

At school Russell was always able to keep on top of his studies as well as pursuing his career on the track, but he was always clear which came first.

Dr Mann said: "Whenever we met George and we'd discuss the progress he was making with his studies, he was just absolutely clear that the thing he loved more than anything else was to drive cars.

"We would give permission for him to attend national events and then as he got older he was progressing more towards European events and then eventually he was moving towards doing world events. It was just incredible to see the progression he was making.

"You could see he was a lad with a phenomenal amount of talent. Of course we never realised necessarily how much talent he would have, but we always knew he was something special."

Speaking about what set Russell apart from other aspiring youngsters, Dr Mann was clear that he had something a bit different.

"In education today we talk about youngsters being resilient and George absolutely had that in spades.

"The determination to set himself a target as high as George set himself a target, and I remember right from the beginning he talked about wanting to race in F1."

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