George Russell has explained how the heartache of losing out on victory at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix might actually have helped him to be the driver he is today.
Russell stood in for Lewis Hamilton towards the end of the 2020 season after the latter picked up covid, with the former getting the chance to show what he could do in a leading F1 car for the first time.
After pushing Valtteri Bottas close in qualifying, he then took the lead in the race and looked good to seal a first-ever Grand Prix victory, before a puncture and a tyre mix up cost him the win.
During that Grand Prix he showed all the talent and class that has eventually earned him a permanent move to Mercedes, and he told the High Performance podcast that the disappointment of that race actually felt like a blessing in disguise in many respects:
"I think that whole weekend I went in with the mentality that I've got nothing to lose.
"You know, he's the driver who's been in that car for four years now and the whole season in that race. I'm coming in, got called up on a Wednesday afternoon, and so if I finish behind him, I'm expected to finish behind him because of the circumstances. But if I beat him, that's huge."
"And that I think fuelled my motivation of thinking, 'wow, what an opportunity. I've got nothing to lose and I can just go for it.' And I think waking up on Sunday morning, I'm just thinking 'it's just another race.' Even though this was the biggest race in my career at that point.
MONZA, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 11: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes and George Russell of Great Britain and Mercedes look on from the grid during the F1 Grand Prix of Italy at Autodromo Nazionale Monza on September 11, 2022 in Monza, Italy. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
"[I] effectively lost the victory through a puncture. But by having that puncture it also gave me an opportunity to carve my way back through the field and overtake Valtteri again, which in a way was almost a bigger statement than what it would've been had I just won the race and cleared off into the distance.
"Within 24 hours I thought perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. You know, I had such an opportunity to show what I was capable of. I think if I just went out there and won that race, probably the respect wouldn't have been there because it almost would've been too easy.
"Whereas people saw me fight for every single opportunity. They saw me fight at the start. They saw me fight back through the field. They saw that passion when I got the puncture and it felt like the people watching were on that journey with me."
Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes will tour the UK with the High Performance live show next year.
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