George Russell says that he has been entertained by the calls and messages that he and Mercedes have obtained from different drivers since a seat grew to become obtainable on the staff in 2025, following Lewis Hamilton’s resolution to change to Ferrari.
The F1 world was taken without warning in early February when it was confirmed that Hamilton will be part of the Scuderia subsequent season, bringing an finish to his decade-long partnership with Mercedes. Whereas Hamilton had beforehand signed a contract extension to maintain him with the staff till the top of 2025, the seven-time champ activated a launch possibility which allowed him to make the transfer.
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Whereas varied names have been speculated as potential candidates for Hamilton’s vacant seat, Russell is just not anxious about who finally joins him on the squad.
“It is gonna be an attention-grabbing few months to see what occurs,” mentioned Russell. “However from my aspect, I have been staff mates with arguably the best driver of all time for the previous two years, and I’ve acquired no considerations in any respect who strains up alongside me. I need to be examined towards the easiest and I really feel that is what I’ve had the final two years.
“Whether or not it’s an skilled driver or a younger driver. I really feel that personally, I am in a terrific place to assist push the staff ahead and go into this subsequent chapter.”
When requested how a lot of a say he may have in relation to the motive force resolution, Russell responded: “I feel for any staff it is necessary to have good concord between the drivers, as a result of that trickles right down to the entire engineers, and the entire staff, however finally the choice’s with Toto [Wolff] and the board.
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“We have already had plenty of conversations and I have been with Toto loads this winter, so seeing the drivers’ names pop up on the phone has been fairly humorous and and even on my telephone as effectively, I’ve had a couple of telephone calls and and textual content messages.
“So it has been fairly attention-grabbing, however as a staff, we’re in a very good alternative and place to enter this subsequent chapter, [after] a lot success with Lewis and Mercedes.”
Hypothesis over who might change into Russell’s staff mate at Mercedes has seen varied names thrown into the combo, from younger up-and-coming drivers to those that can deliver extra expertise.
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Russell additionally not too long ago made it clear that he would haven’t any points with Max Verstappen becoming a member of the staff following rumours linking the Dutchman with a future swap to the Silver Arrows.