GEORGE RUSSELL confronted his examiner after failing his first driving test at the age of 17.
The Mercedes star is now one of the best young drivers in F1 but there was a time when he let his confidence get the better of him.
Russell, 25, took up karting at the age of five so was experienced behind the wheel ahead of his first driving test.
And his dad Steve has revealed that Russell’s skill on the track made him believe passing his test would come easy.
But he failed his first go and that led a furious Russell to demand a showdown with his examiner.
Steve Russell shared the story with The Times, saying: “There was just one occasion when George didn’t put the full effort in and it caused quite a commotion.
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“He failed his first driving test at 17 because he thought that being a great driver on the track was good enough. He came home fuming that the examiner was wrong.
“We had to go back to the test centre in King’s Lynn so George could confront him. That didn’t go down well.”
Russell spoke about his childhood racing, revealing there could be a bad atmosphere in his home if races did not go to plan.
He told The Times: “When I drove well, there were celebrations and the mood was great but because everyone was so emotionally and financially invested, when I suffered a poor weekend the mood was bad.
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“Dad has always been hard on the ones he loves. As a young kid, that was difficult to deal with. The pressure didn’t just filter down to me, it affected the whole family. I felt the weight of failure and expectation.
“If I made a silly mistake and spun off the track, I can now understand why Dad might have thought, ‘What the hell am I doing this for?’.
“He had to work his arse off to support my racing, so if I didn’t put in enough effort, it must have been hard.”
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
