Formula 1: George Russell’s dominance unprecedented

George Russell started his Formula 1 career with Williams last season, and he is a perfect 24 for 24 in terms of outqualifying his teammates.

When it comes to thinking about Formula 1 and dominance, you don’t usually picture the lone driver who failed to score a point in a given season — and one who has still scored zero points in his career.

That is exactly what George Russell did in his rookie year last year driving for Williams. The team’s lone point came courtesy of Robert Kubica’s 10th place finish in the German Grand Prix, which was unsurprisingly a race when only nine non-Williams drivers finished without being penalized.

In one of the very few instances Russell finished behind Kubica in 2019, Kubica happened to place 10th and score one point. Russell finished in 11th, although he had a shot at a top five before Williams did not take his word for making the move to a pit strategy that netted Lance Stroll a surprising fourth place result for Racing Point.

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Last season, the two Williams drivers were effectively fighting among themselves, given just how far behind the other nine teams on the grid the team were. But as a rookie, Russell outqualified the former Grand Prix winner in each of the 21 rounds. The chances of pulling off such a feat are 1 in 2,097,152.

Russell tied a Formula 1 record with this clean sweep, a record that had been set by two-time world champion Fernando Alonso the previous year when he went 21 for 21 against teammate Stoffel Vandoorne. Alonso’s clean sweep was the first since he went 18 for 18 against teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. at Renault in 2008.

Alonso retired at the end of the 2018 season on a 26-race streak of beating his teammate (all over Vandoorne), but he is set to return to Formula 1 next year at Renault alongside Esteban Ocon, where that streak will likely come to an end at some point.

Kubica was replaced by rookie Nicholas Latifi at the Grove-based team ahead of the 2020 season. Through three qualifying sessions this year, Russell still hasn’t been beaten by a teammate in his 24-race Formula 1 career.

The chances of going 24 for 24 in head-to-head teammate qualifying battles are 1 in 16,777,216. The chances of going 25 for 25 are 1 in 33,554,432. But Russell has gotten them down to 1 in 2, given that he is already riding a 24-race streak of outqualifying his teammates.

Clean sweeps are extremely rare, but they are nothing new. With that being said, Alonso is a two-time world champion. On the other hand, Russell has yet to score a Formula 1 point, yet here he is, still undefeated in qualifying, with a chance to do in one year what it took Alonso a decade to pull off: repeat a clean sweep.

That level of dominance is unprecedented, especially for somebody as young and inexperienced as Russell. Going anything-0 to start a career is impressive, much less 24-0 — and perhaps even more than that.

Of course, we don’t know how long the 2020 season will last due to the fact that the coronavirus pandemic caused major changes to the schedule. But regardless, we could very well be witnessing more Formula 1 history whenever the 22-year-old Briton takes to the circuit to qualify against his 25-year-old Canadian teammate.

Will Russell make it 25 for 25? When will he finally be beaten? Tune in to ESPN at 8:55 a.m. ET later this morning for the live broadcast of the qualifying session for the 2020 British Grand Prix from Silverstone Circuit.