How Russell sees his place in the Mercedes-Hamilton F1 superteam

George Russell joining Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes this year gives it arguably the best line-up in Formula 1 – if it can avoid too many fireworks. After serving his apprenticeship at Williams, Russell is the man that Mercedes team believes can lead it in the post-Hamilton era, but how will he fare against the seven-time champion? Motorsport.com heard from the man himself

Alex Kalinauckas Jan 6, 2022, 10:12 AM

Upd: Jan 6, 2022, 10:19 AM

Sorry, Ferrari, but the mantle of having the best driver line-up in Formula 1 may well be about to slip. That’s after just one season of the Charles Leclerc/Carlos Sainz Jr pairing. And that’s because one of the championship’s ‘superteams’ just got a few more powers.

There’s still the rest of the off-season to go before it becomes known how the reigning constructors’ champion has coped with the second major rules reset to come its way since mastery of the V6 hybrid switch catapulted Mercedes into heading F1’s pecking order. But, on paper at least, the second change to its driver line-up since 2014 – and the first one it has decided to do all by itself considering the circumstances of Nico Rosberg’s post-title retirement five years ago – provides a big boost. Because, alongside statistically F1’s greatest ever racer, Mercedes now has the driver it considers to be the next Lewis Hamilton primed to race alongside the real one.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.