Formula 1

Russell would make things "difficult" for Hamilton at Mercedes

Max Verstappen believes George Russell would make things “very difficult” for Lewis Hamilton if he were to become the seven-time Formula 1 world champion’s Mercedes teammate next year.

Luke Smith

Edited: Sep 4, 2021, 1:04 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

George Russell, Williams, 2nd position, and Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 3rd position, congratulate each other on the podium

Mercedes is expected to make an announcement in the near future revealing who will partner Hamilton at the team next year, having spent the past few months deciding between Russell and Hamilton's current teammate, Valtteri Bottas.

Russell is widely expected to get the seat, having been part of Mercedes' junior programme since 2017 and starred during his time with Williams in F1 since debuting in 2019, as well as impressing in a one-off appearance for Mercedes in last year's Sakhir Grand Prix after Hamilton was sidelined by COVID-19.

Hamilton's former teammate Nico Rosberg, the 2016 F1 world champion, told Motorsport.com on Wednesday that he thought things could get "more heated" at Mercedes if Russell were to become Hamilton's teammate, posing a greater challenge than Bottas currently does.

Asked by Motorsport.com for his thoughts on how the potential move would change the team dynamic at Mercedes, Verstappen said he thought Spa runner-up Russell would "make it very difficult for Lewis".

"He jumped into the car in Bahrain, and basically he was already from lap one making it very difficult for Valtteri," Verstappen said.

"So you can only imagine the more experience you gain in that car, and the more you get accustomed within the team, naturally you're going to be becoming faster.

"When you do your first race, you are guided by the team about set-up direction, because you just don't know what to do really, initially, with the car. Even though of course F1 cars look pretty similar, the way of setting them up can be very different.

"So yeah, for sure, I'm very confident. Already what you could see, the performance he did in Spa was really good. Of course they set up the car a bit more for wet conditions, but nevertheless, to do that in a Williams was very impressive.

"I do expect him to do very well if he gets that seat."

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W11

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Verstappen currently finds himself in a close battle with Hamilton for the F1 drivers' championship, sitting just three points behind after his half points victory at Spa last weekend.

The Red Bull driver will enter his home grand prix at Zandvoort this weekend looking to move back to the top of the standings for the first time since before the Hungarian Grand Prix.

It will be the first Dutch Grand Prix since 1985 after significant redevelopment of Zandvoort paved the way for the track's return to the calendar, capitalising on the fervent support for Verstappen.

"They've done an incredible job setting this all up, first of all hosting a grand prix, but also now how you look at the whole complex as a whole," said Verstappen.

"It looks very cool, and I hope we can have a good fun weekend.

"Of course you want good results, but I think that we can enjoy ourselves on Saturday once the fuel comes out and we can see how fast we can go around this track."

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Alonso: Personal and Alpine progress key to F1 future beyond 2022

Next article Raikkonen: ‘No plans’ beyond family after retiring from F1

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Why aerodynamics will become "even more important" under 2027 MotoGP regulations

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

2 min

Why aerodynamics will become "even more important" under 2027 MotoGP regulations

Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value

WEC

WEC WEC

Monza

1 h

Sebastien Bourdais hopes latest WEC success will remind teams of his value

"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

2 h

"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027

The lowdown on this year’s FIA F3 title protagonists

FIA F3

The lowdown on this year’s FIA F3 title protagonists

Feature

Discover prime content

Tough love and F1 titles – A key life lesson behind Wolff's Mercedes success

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Ronald Vording

Tough love and F1 titles – A key life lesson behind Wolff's Mercedes success

How Brazil showcased everything that's good about F1 - plus some that isn't

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Filip Cleeren

How Brazil showcased everything that's good about F1 - plus some that isn't

Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s

Why Rafael Camara should take heart from a tough F1 debut in Brazil

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Why Rafael Camara should take heart from a tough F1 debut in Brazil

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts