George Russell was the main man at Williams, light years ahead of his teammate Nicholas Latifi in terms of performance and as he was a part of the Mercedes system, it looked destined that the Brit would take Valtteri Bottas’ seat whenever the Finn departed.
Some pundits questioned how the Brit would react when he finally got his dream move to the Silver Arrows, and was no longer the number one driver, with some even predicting a frosty relationship as Russell appears a lot less willing to take up a wingman role than Bottas was.
This has not been the case however with the British driver pairing getting on well and both being successful, with Russell performing better in the first half of the season with a flurry of podium finishes, while Lewis Hamilton has really come into his own in recent weeks.
Russell has now spoken out about his experience in his first year paired with Hamilton, suggesting that he has learned a lot from the seven-time world champion and is keen for their relationship to continue.
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“It’s really exciting for me to have the opportunity to be his teammate, to go directly head-to-head with him and grow on this journey that we’re on together, because it really does feel like a journey that the two of us are on, along with the rest of the team, in trying to bring Mercedes back to winning ways,” said the 24-year-old.
“So I think we’ve got a really, really great, transparent relationship and it would be great ot be teammates for a number of years to come.”
Mercedes are currently winless this season, after losing a lot of ground in the development battle to Red Bull and Ferrari while the team battled porpoising issues early on in the year, leading the W13 to be uncompetitive until its recent upgrades.
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Hamilton has been challenging for the win in the past two races after the upgrades came to Austin, while Russell has seen somewhat of a dip in his form after a blistering start to his Mercedes career.
“It’s really exciting to have that potential of Lewis staying on for a number of years to come,” said Russell when asked about the potential of a Hamilton contract extension.
“I think he has proven that he’s definitely not lifted his foot off the throttle pedal, and he’s definitely in the last few races performing probably better than ever.”