George Russell has revealed that the 'sickening' crashes involving Billy Monger, Anthoine Hubert and Romain Grosjean continue to inspire his work with the Grand Prix Drivers' Association. The Mercedes star is a co-director of the group, working to improve safety for those behind the wheel of Formula One cars. Currently, Russell and Williams' Carlos Sainz are the F1 driver representatives on the board, working alongside former Benetton and McLaren racer Alexander Wurz and legal adviser Anastasia Fowle.

The organisation has played a pivotal role in improving driver safety and worked to get the halo cockpit system introduced as a mandatory component of F1 cars. Since its introduction, it has saved the lives of several drivers, protecting the head from impact in scary collisions, such as Zhou Guanyu's at the 2022 British Grand Prix.

Russell takes his role extremely seriously and is motivated by a string of past incidents. "I'm not chasing to leave any legacy," he told Autosport. "That's never been the intention. It's just that if I see an opportunity to improve something, I want to speak about it, especially if it comes to track safety or car safety,"

"In 2012, I was team-mates with Billy Monger [who later lost both his legs in a British F4] and had a close relationship with him. Seeing that crash live, and then watching Anthoine's crash [at Spa in 2019], I was watching that live.

"It was sickening to watch. When you experience things like this with people who you know so well, and you believe you have ideas that can help improve the safety or prevent that from happening, then you naturally want to share it.

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"Again, Romain Grosjean's crash [at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix], I saw that. He was in front of me and I passed him, and I still see the image in my head now. I looked in my mirror, and all I could see was flames. It took over my whole mirror.

"That could have happened to anyone. It could have happened to the greatest driver in the world. That's just the danger we face. So, I think that's probably why I wanted to be more involved than not."

In his role as co-chair of the GPDA, Russell has sought to increase the weight that F1 drivers' opinions hold when it comes to FIA decisions. The 27-year-old has spearheaded criticism of Mohammed Ben Sulayem's leadership and has joined Lewis Hamilton in calling for a 'power seat' at the table during the governing body's talks.