Current Williams driver and the Mercedes junior George Russell has finally got the break he has been looking for. After the announcement that Valtteri Bottas will be leaving the Brackley based team at the end of this year, it has been announced that he will be replaced by the stellar British youngster who had been on loan to the Williams team for the last three years. Russell who made his debut in F1 in the 2019 season on the back of F2 world championship-winning performance has been earmarked by many a future world champion, is part of the Mercedes succession plan for 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton who recently resigned till the 2023 season. Russell has signed a multi-year deal with the works Mercedes team.
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Hamilton, however, is already 36 years old and is the third-oldest driver on the grid after the outgoing Kimi Raikkonen and the resurgent Fernando Alonso. By the time, the 2023 season starts the most successful driver in the history of the sport will be 38 years old. Russell drove Hamilton's 2020 Mercedes when he was stricken by COVID-19 during the Sakhir GP and almost won the race qualifying P2 when he overtook Valtteri Bottas at the start. If wasn't for a colossally botched double stop where the Mercedes pit crew put the wrong sets on tyres on the two cars, and then a further puncture that prevented the British youngster from winning the race. This resulted in handing Sergio Perez his maiden win from the back of the grid which was instrumental in getting him the seat on Red Bull for 2021.
A distraught George Russell in Hamilton's Mercedes after he missed out on winning the Sakhir GP
Photo Credit: AFP
Russell has out-qualified all his teammates save for one race in over 50 F1 starts which has dubbed him the nickname of Mr Saturday. In fact, during the ill-fated weekend at Spa for the Belgian GP, Russell whipped out what many consider one of the all-time great qualifying laps in torrential conditions in a Williams which belonged at the back of the grid, out-qualifying even Lewis Hamilton which eventually resulted in his best finish in F1 as the race was abandoned after few rounds behind the safety car.
For Mercedes and Hamilton, this will be a new challenge as Russell wouldn't be as obedient a teammate as Bottas whom the defending world champion himself has described as his best teammate in his storied 15-year F1 career. Russell already has shown an intent to be fearless and ruthless - he even crashed with Bottas earlier this year at Imola when he attempted to overtake a beleaguered Bottas fighting it out at the fag end of the grid. Russell has often expressed his desire to become a world champion as well which means he will come with some spunk something that Hamilton hasn't dealt with since his earlier days where he had Fernando Alonso as his teammate in his first year and then his first four years at Mercedes where he had an acrimonious relationship with Nico Rosberg who even beat him to the world title in 2016.
Russell drove a manic qualifying lap at Spa in the Williams which catapulted him to P2 ahead of Hamilton
2022 is important for Mercedes as it marks a dramatic change in rules which could take away its advantage. It already finds itself in a situation where a resurgent Red Bull has caught up to its powertrain advantage (thanks to Honda) which has been the fulcrum behind its record-breaking streak in the turbo-hybrid era of the sport. Alongside Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari are showing signs of massive resurgence and stability and almost certainly will be at the top of the grid alongside Red Bull and Mercedes in 2022. Then there are other teams like Aston Martin and Alpine to watch out who now have former world champions in Vettel and Alonso with a point to prove and big budgets in an era of budget caps so Mercedes like before can't spend limitless money to win the title and out develop its rivals.
Mercedes is betting on having the best two drivers on the grid to make up the difference if it doesn't have the best car on the grid. Already in 2021, it is facing issues with Red Bull as Bottas has found himself outside the top 4 often which is why the constructor's fight between Red Bull and Mercedes is so tight even at the midway stage of the season.
Russell's current boss Jost Capito the CEO of Williams is supportive of the driver going up in the grid at a team that can give him race-winning machinery. The former Volkswagen world endurance championship boss believes Russell is destined to be a future F1 world champion. With his exit, Williams is likely to go for Red Bull reserve driver Alex Albon who has been doing well in DTM racing off late.
