Editorials Formula 1

British Brotherhood: Will Russell Replace Bottas at Mercedes in 2022?

Posted by AR1 staff

Even if Lewis Hamilton is able to reel in Max Verstappen and clinch his historic eighth Drivers’ Championship in 2021, there are still many questions that Mercedes have to answer.

Why are they performing so poorly in qualifying? Why is Red Bull faster than them? Why won’t Toto Wolff commit to improving the car this season?

The team principal has confirmed that no time or resources will be spent on upgrading the W12, with the German manufacturer looking ahead to next season when a catalog of rule changes will be introduced.

But there is some disarray in the camp. Hamilton, fresh from signing a new two-year contract, has bemoaned his vehicle’s lack of power. “They [Red Bull] are faster,” he has said. “They are just faster. We need to find some performance, we really need an upgrade of some sort.”

Already on the radar of the German outfit, Russell looks to be the perfect heir apparent to Bottas, whose contract runs out at the end of the season. Hamilton himself labeled his fellow Brit as an ‘interesting candidate’ for the role of his understudy, and the fact that Bottas’ role is being discussed so freely in the public domain suggests his days are numbered. Fans of F1 history will recall some of the best team pairings the sport has seen, from Jim Clark and Graham Hill at Lotus to the best of enemies, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, at McLaren.

If Mercedes are to cut Red Bull’s inexorable rise down to size, they need both of their drivers to be battling for the top spot on the podium in any given race – right now, Bottas is a million miles away from that. Russell, in his sole start as a Mercedes frontman, could and perhaps should have won the Sakhir GP, and his undoubted skill may be exactly what Hamilton needs alongside him as he plots a way to take down that young upstart Verstappen.

His teammate, Valtteri Bottas, has confirmed that the vehicle is ‘clearly lacking pace’ too, and in the grand scheme of things that could create some problems for the Finn. If you believe the F1 rumor mill, his position as number two to Hamilton is under serious threat anyway, and those calls are likely to be amplified given a start to the season that has yielded just a solitary runners-up finish.

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King George?

The speculation that George Russell will replace Bottas as the Mercedes number two refuses to go away.

The young Englishman continues to perform admirably in what is a poor Williams car, and he is said to have impressed Mercedes chiefs greatly when he stepped into Hamilton’s sizable shoes for the Sakhir Grand Prix in 2020.

Already on the radar of the German outfit, Russell looks to be the perfect heir apparent to Bottas, whose contract runs out at the end of the season. Hamilton himself labeled his fellow Brit as an ‘interesting candidate’ for the role of his understudy, and the fact that Bottas’ role is being discussed so freely in the public domain suggests his days are numbered.

Valtteri Bottas – Steve Etherington photo

Fans of F1 history will recall some of the best team pairings the sport has seen, from Jim Clark and Graham Hill at Lotus to the best of enemies, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, at McLaren.

If Mercedes are to cut Red Bull’s inexorable rise down to size, they need both of their drivers to be battling for the top spot on the podium in any given race – right now, Bottas is a million miles away from that.

Russell, in his sole start as a Mercedes frontman, could and perhaps should have won the Sakhir GP, and his undoubted skill may be exactly what Hamilton needs alongside him as he plots a way to take down that young upstart Verstappen.