Mercedes has reportedly already signed George Russell to replace Valtteri Bottas in 2022, and the news is said to have gone down “like a lead balloon” with world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Russell confirmed overnight that he already knows where he’ll be driving next season, with an announcement expected within weeks.
Bottas is likely to replace the retiring Kimi Raikkonen at Alfa Romeo.
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The arrival of Russell to partner Hamilton is expected to provide the seven-time world champion with more competition than he currently faces from Bottas, much to his displeasure.
“(Team boss) Toto (Wolff) has made up his mind to bring in George. Lewis has been told and he’s not happy,” a Mercedes source told the UK Daily Mail.
“He wanted Valtteri as a team-mate because he is compliant and not quite quick enough to trouble him, but that’s not what is happening.
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“You could say, as far as Lewis is concerned, it’s gone down like a lead balloon.”
Russell is seen as a potential world champion in the right car, as evidenced by his sensational second place on the grid for last week’s Belgian Grand Prix for Williams, a car that has no right to be qualifying in the top five. But Russell took full advantage of wet conditions to showcase the talent many believe will see him challenge Hamilton.
Publicly Hamilton is saying all the right things, even if he’s expressed his reservations behind closed doors.
“I think George is an incredibly talented driver. His qualifying lap (in Belgium) was amazing,” Hamilton said overnight.
“He’s humble and I think he’s got a great approach. He’s already shown incredible driving so far and I’m sure he’s going to continue to grow, so where better to do it in a great team like this?”
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There’s been relative peace at Mercedes since Bottas replaced the retired Nico Rosberg for the 2017 season.
That followed a bitter 2016 world title fight between Hamilton and Rosberg, eventually settled in Rosberg’s favour.
“If they do take George, then the battle internally at Mercedes would be different, and potentially more heated,” Rosberg told motorsport.com.
“If one day he would drive next to Lewis, then it’s impossible to predict how he would act in such a situation. It’s an extreme. It’s completely extremes. Suddenly you’re in a race-winning car every weekend, you’re fighting against the best of all time, who has been there for like the last eight years.
It’s an extreme situation. So it really depends from one driver to the other how you would deal with that as a teammate.”
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