Williams driver and Russell’s former teammate Nicholas Latifi has revealed earlier this week that he hired security guards during a trip to London following death threats he received from Lewis Hamilton fans.

The Canadian driver crashed into the barriers on lap 54 of Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which resulted in a safety car being deployed. This ultimately wiped out Hamilton lead and allowed Red Bull's Max Verstappen to win his first world championship.

And with the abuse so extreme, Latifi said he felt forced to take measures to protect himself when he visited London's Winter Wonderland.

The 26-year-old also revealed that Lewis Hamilton was among the sports personalities who did send him a message to show his support.

When asked about the situation during the session with selected media, MotorLAT included, George Russell commented:

“I think more needs to be done for athletes and people in the spotlight because people behind the keyboard think they have a right to say what they like and what they don’t but they also tend to forget that everybody is human”

“I am a racing driver; I still need to learn and educate myself more about this [mental health] but something more needs to be done”.

Former Williams’ driver continued by saying that he personally experienced how hard it was to drive the FW43 and it shocked him to see how many people thought Latifi crashed on purpose.

“I felt really bad for Nicholas [Latifi], he is an amazing guy and he puts so much work and effort in his training.

“Mistakes happen and I know first-hand how difficult that specific Williams car was to drive. He didn’t deserve at all the hate and abuse he has received over the last few months,” Russell concluded.

Even Lewis Hamilton has received a fair amount of hate and criticism from Verstappen’s fans immediately after the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

He had to deal with a few issues and went offline for almost two months avoiding any type of public outing. Nevertheless, Russell doesn’t believe this will cause any harm to Hamilton’s preparation for the upcoming season.

“I don’t think Lewis disappearing from social media will be a problem,” said Russell.

“He is a fighter and his absolute main priority is to be the best version of himself and be ready for Bahrain.

“He is far more experienced than I am so he knows what it takes to be a world champion and he knows what preparation he needs over the course of a pre-season to prepare himself for the first race.

“Everybody is different, I probably have a different approach to Lewis and Lewis probably has a different approach than another driver and you need to learn what works best for you.”