George Russell says he has had drivers contacting him in addition to group boss Toto Wolff in relation to the vacant Mercedes seat that will probably be left by Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton is becoming a member of Ferrari in 2025, bringing to an finish his 12-year stint with Mercedes and leaving one of the vital aggressive seats on the grid accessible. With a number of drivers additionally out of contract on the finish of this season, Russell says he’s prepared to be paired with anybody and has been receiving calls and messages himself in addition to his group principal.
“It’s going to be an attention-grabbing few months to see what occurs,” Russell mentioned. “From my facet, I’ve been teammates with arguably the best driver of all time for the previous two years, and I’ve bought no considerations in any respect who strains up alongside me. I wish to be examined in opposition to the easiest.
“I really feel that’s what I’ve had the final two years. Whether or not it’s an expertise driver or a younger driver, I really feel that personally I’m in a fantastic place to assist push the group ahead and go into this subsequent chapter for the group.
“I feel for any group, it’s good to have concord between the drivers, as a result of that trickles all the way down to the entire engineers and the entire group. However in the end the choice is with Toto and the board.
“We’ve already had conversations — I’ve been with Toto so much this winter, so seeing the drivers’ names pop up on the phone is sort of humorous; and even on my telephone as effectively, had fairly a couple of telephone calls and textual content messages.
“It’s been fairly attention-grabbing. However as a group, we’re in a extremely good alternative and place to enter this subsequent chapter, to have a lot success with Lewis and Mercedes, and [go] onto the subsequent.”
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Whoever joins Russell is more likely to nonetheless be chasing Pink Bull based on the 26-year-old, saying Pink Bull is “100%” the favourite even after simply in the future of pre-season testing.
“It (the W15) does really feel a step in the proper course, however there’s no hiding that our rivals have additionally finished a extremely nice job. We all know we had a mountain to climb with the efficiency Pink Bull confirmed final 12 months, for anyone to beat that hole was an enormous take a look at. Undoubtedly the automotive is feeling nicer to drive, however in the end it’s all the way down to the lap instances.
“We nonetheless haven’t seen really but the place all people is falling out. However Pink Bull appear to have finished a extremely nice job once more, and so they’re little doubt favorites.”
