Russell joined ART Grand Prix for Formula 2 after winning the 2017 GP3 Series with the same team, a campaign in which ART dominated so completely that its drivers filled the top four positions in the standings. A member of the Mercedes Junior Team since early 2017, Russell had been set explicit targets by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff: win the GP3 title, then win Formula 2, before being considered for a Formula One seat.
Mercedes promoted Russell to first-team reserve driver for 2018, alongside his Formula 2 campaign. He shared reserve duties with Pascal Wehrlein and conducted official test drives for Mercedes and for Force India during the season.
The 2018 Formula 2 grid was widely described as one of the strongest in the category's history, featuring Lando Norris with Carlin, Alex Albon, Nyck de Vries, Nicholas Latifi, and others. Russell's ART team did not carry over the lopsided dominance it had shown in GP3 the previous year — Norris's Carlin took the teams' championship and Norris led the drivers' standings after ten rounds.
Russell heated up at mid-season. Between roughly round ten and round fifteen, he finished either first or second in five of six races. He qualified in the top four at all but one round — the exception was an engine problem that disrupted his qualifying. The drivers discussed among themselves that engine performance varied between teams despite Formula 2 being a spec series; Albon and Norris both commented that Russell appeared to have the best engine in 2018, while Russell and Albon noted that Norris's engine was very competitive early in the year.
Russell clinched the title with 68 points over Norris at the season's conclusion, a margin that reflected his sustained run of results in the second half of the year.
Russell's championship placed him in company with a select group of Formula 2 and GP2 champions who won the title in their first season: Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg, and Leclerc. It also made him the fourth driver to win both the GP3 and GP2/Formula 2 titles in consecutive seasons, following Hamilton, Hulkenberg, and Leclerc. Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto subsequently matched the feat.
The 2018 title was consequential for Russell's career trajectory. Mercedes honoured its roadmap and arranged for Russell to join Williams — a Mercedes engine customer — for 2019, giving him a Formula One seat in his first year of eligibility and making him the first driver out of the 2018 F2 field to race in Formula One.
The competitive strength of the 2018 grid is relevant to assessing Russell's achievement. Norris, who finished second in the championship, went directly to McLaren for 2019. Albon joined Toro Rosso and was later promoted to Red Bull. De Vries won the Formula E World Championship in 2021 and reached Formula One. Latifi drove in Formula One for Williams. That Russell prevailed over this group in a close contest — particularly given that Norris led the standings at the halfway point — is regarded as validation that the title was a genuine competitive achievement rather than a product of equipment advantage.
Russell's Formula 2 title is the capstone of a junior career in which he won championships at every level he entered. Together with his GP3 title the previous year, it completed the ladder climb that Mercedes had set as the condition for F1 promotion. It is also significant as the last title in a run of three consecutive Formula 2 championships won by drivers who became Ferrari or Mercedes Grand Prix drivers: Leclerc in 2017, Russell in 2018.