George Russell has opened up about launching his own dedicated grandstand for his supporters at Silverstone.
It was announced this week that the British driver would have the George Russell Grandstand at his home grand prix circuit from 2027.
The grandstand will be located at Farm Curve and ticketholders will get a three-day reserved seat, an official George Russell T-shirt delivered ahead of the race weekend and access to the main stage headline performances, the Drivers Inn, entertainment zones, the F1 Fanzone and the Silverstone Museum.
“The grandstand’s going to be really cool next year,” Russell explained in a video for Mercedes’ social media. “I’ve been wanting to do it for a number of years. When Lando went in, I was like, ‘Ah, beat me to it!’
“But still it was such a special place. It’s just great to almost give something back to the fans, and do something cool, be part of the community, and bring different fans together. I think that’s really, really nice.”
While larger grandstands were available for Russell, he explained why he chose a slightly smaller one to give ticketholders a great view of the on-track action.
“There were other grandstands that were bigger that we could have chosen,” he continued. “But I wanted to choose that spot because you can see the most number of corners from that grandstand. You’ve got the first four corners. You’ll see the race start, you’ll see overtakes into Turn 3 and into Turn 4. You’ll see the pitlane exit as well. I think that’s the best spot.”
He reflected on his first memory of visiting Silverstone as a child, supporting Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.
“Growing into where we are now and being on my journey with F1 and Mercedes has been really, really special. Silverstone, it holds so many memories. I remember 2009. That was my first memory at Silverstone.
“I was actually there in a Red Bull jacket, believe it or not, supporting Sebastian Vettel. I don’t know if he knows this, to be honest. And that was the era, as well, where you had the foghorns.
“So, there’s this image of me somewhere with this jacket over my chin with the foghorn, my hair down here, fully covering my ears and a bowl cut. So that was my first memory.”
Priority access to tickets will be available at 2pm on Wednesday 23 September before they go on general sale on Thursday 24 September.
