George Russell has a lot to live up to after F1 CEO sides with Toto Wolff

Hamilton opens up on plans to remain in F1 ahead of 2023 season

George Russell will be feeling the pressure to live up to his billing as a future world champion. Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali sided with Toto Wolff by hailing the Mercedes driver as one of the best on the grid. Russell has settled in well since joining the Silver Arrows from Williams at the start of last year and raised plenty of eyebrows when he outpointed Lewis Hamilton at the end of their first season as Mercedes team-mates.

Russell managed to win his first race at last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix and has gone on to make an encouraging start to 2023 in spite of Mercedes’ lack of pace. The 25-year-old’s form over the last 18 months has drawn high praise from F1 chief Domenicali, who described him as a ‘protagonist’ of the future ahead of this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

“There’s a great future for Formula One,” he told the Daily Mail when quizzed on the current crop of young stars in the F1 paddock, which includes Russell as well as the likes of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc. “I think they know who must take the decisions.”

Domenicali is far from the only person to have tipped Russell to achieve great things over the course of his career, with Mercedes team principal Wolff having previously insisted that the King’s Lynn native is more than good enough to win the Drivers’ Championship title after dominating in junior formulas.

JUST IN: Lewis Hamilton shows his class again with Yuki Tsunoda comments ahead of Monaco

“George is a champion in the making and he was a champion in all the junior categories, in F3, F2, as a rookie,” said the Austrian. “We would have never put him in a Mercedes if we didn’t believe he can be a future world champion.”

It remains to be seen whether Russell will ever be able to fight the likes of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton for the end-of-season honours, although it seems clear that Mercedes will need to improve their pace in order for him to stand the best chance of doing so in the near future. The Silver Arrows have lagged behind Red Bull and Ferrari in terms of outright performance for the last two seasons but will be hoping that their next batch of upgrades, which are set to be introduced in Monaco this weekend, will help to turn the tide as they seek a return to the top of the pecking order.

Don’t miss…
Lewis Hamilton takes portable music studio to races as McFly star reveals all[NEWS]
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have different weekend plans after Imola GP[GOSSIP]
Novak Djokovic to battle Charles Leclerc as tennis and F1 icons go head-to-head[LATEST]

Russell has also been branded a future world champion by one of his biggest F1 rivals in Verstappen, who revealed in March that he instantly knew his Mercedes counterpart was going to be a special driver when they first raced against each other in karting.

“George is part of the generation with Lando and Charles and me that grew up together,” said the Dutchman. “I raced against George a bit in karting, though he’s a year younger. You could see straight away he was good.

“It came naturally to him, he didn’t need a lot of laps to be quick. He could jump straight in and battle at the front. He has the potential to be a world champion. I haven’t spent too much time with him, but he is a good lad. He has just moved to Monaco, so I may see more of him from now on.”

Follow our new Express Sport page on Instagram here.

Source: Read Full Article