F1 news LIVE: George Russell preparing for ‘most intense’ season alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes
Amid the continuing uncertainty over Lewis Hamilton’s future in Formula One his teammate for the 2022 season George Russell has said he is preparing for the “most intense” season of his life as he gets ready to make the step up to Mercedes. The 23-year-old is replacing Valtteri Bottas after three seasons at Williams and will go straight into a 23-race campaign in 2022, the longest in Formula One history. “I think 2022 will be the most intense year of my life in terms of racing schedules, but also from an off-track and marketing side of things,” Russell said.
“Going from Williams, where I have been pretty fortunate in a way not having to do so many marketing activities just because of the nature of the position we’ve been in, to Mercedes where we’ve got tons of sponsors and lots of commitments that drivers need to attend to. From a racing side and off-track side, it is going to be incredibly intense.”
Elsewhere, Formula One drivers including defending champion Max Verstappen are continuing their off-seasons as teams tease their cars for the 2022, which will see the most significant change of regulations since 2014. There is hope that the changes, which are designed to increase overtaking opportunities and reduce the gap between teams, will make it a more open fight for the title next season, with Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali tipping several drivers to challenge Hamilton and Verstappen for the championship.
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Max Verstappen has admitted that luck turned in his favour at exactly the right time after he clinched his maiden Formula 1 world championship in such controversial circumstances.
He overtook Hamilton in the last lap in the final race of the season.
“It’s always difficult to really use the right word for it but you need a bit of luck in your life, and I think up until that point I didn’t really have a lot of luck in the season – otherwise I think the championship would have been decided way earlier,” Verstappen told Sky.
“Luck came at the right time for me and then of course you still have to take the opportunity, which we did as a team.”
Max Verstappen admits ‘luck came at right time’ in F1 title-winning season
‘Then of course you still have to take the opportunity’
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Sebastian Vettel has been tipped to finish his career with a remarkable return to Red Bull.
The German won four championship titles with Red Bull before moving to Ferrari. Now 34, Vettel is driving with Aston Martin and spent last season battling in the midfield, but former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has backed Vettel to return to Red Bull to show the sport how fast he still is.
“We don’t know how quick he is any more because he’s not in a competitive car – so it’s not easy to say he’s not as quick as he used to be,” Ecclestone said. “He needs to be back in Red Bull actually.”
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And Russell’s hopes are matched by F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, who welcomed last season’s battle between Hamilton and Verstappen as one of the most exciting the sport had seen while also predicting that there could be more contenders this year.
“Of course I very much hope that the duel [between Hamilton and Verstappen] will continue,” Domenicali said, as quoted by Sport1.de. “But I also hope that other drivers can get involved in the title fight.
“We have so many young and talented drivers at the moment, an extremely strong field.
“That’s why the focus at the moment is on whether the new cars will allow more drivers to fight for victories and the title with them.”
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Russell is also preparing for the fight for the drivers’ championship to be wide open in 2022.
Russell, who has joined Mercedes, says there are as many as five times who can challenge for the title this year.
“A team like Ferrari that have been through a difficult period for the last two years are going to be so hungry, especially with this new rule change, to come back fighting, similar to McLaren as well,” Russel said.
“These teams have got the infrastructure, the talent within the engineering department, with the drivers as well, to really fight.
“I truly believe there are five teams all capable of really doing something special next year, so you’ve got to be absolutely on it, and I think development is going to be absolutely key.”
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Amid the continuing uncertainty over Lewis Hamilton’s future in Formula One his teammate for the 2022 season George Russell has said he is preparing for the “most intense” season of his life as he gets ready to make the step up to Mercedes. The 23-year-old is replacing Valtteri Bottas after three seasons at Williams and will go straight into a 23-race campaign in 2022, the longest in Formula One history. “I think 2022 will be the most intense year of my life in terms of racing schedules, but also from an off-track and marketing side of things,” Russell said.
“Going from Williams, where I have been pretty fortunate in a way not having to do so many marketing activities just because of the nature of the position we’ve been in, to Mercedes where we’ve got tons of sponsors and lots of commitments that drivers need to attend to. From a racing side and off-track side, it is going to be incredibly intense.”
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