Formula 1: Will George Russell drive for Mercedes in the 2021 season?

Will Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport junior driver George Russell be promoted to the Mercedes Formula 1 team ahead of the 2021 season?

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport junior driver George Russell only made his Formula 1 debut in the 2019 season opener, the Australian Grand Prix, just over one week ago. But even before then, there was talk about the ROKiT Williams Racing rookie potentially landing with the Mercedes Formula 1 team at some point in the near future.

The 21-year-old Briton, who won the 2017 GP3 Series championship in his rookie season before winning the 2018 Formula 2 championship in his rookie season, has been rumored to be a potential candidate to drive for the Silver Arrows started in the 2021 season.

Will this end up happening?

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Last summer, Lewis Hamilton, who has driven for Mercedes since the 2013 season and has been a key member of the team during their incredible five-year run of winning every driver championship and every constructor championship, signed a two-year extension to continue driving for the team through the 2020 season.

Meanwhile, also last summer, Valtteri Bottas, who has driven for Mercedes since the 2017 season, signed a one-year extension that carries an additional one-year option for the team to retain him through the 2020 season.

Hamilton, the five-time champion who has won four his five championships driving for Mercedes in four of the last five seasons, discussed the possibility of Russell replacing him at the team ahead of the 2021 season. Here is what he had to say about the matter back in 2017, according to ESPN.

"“While the car is in this form of rules until 2021 at least, I think that’s going to be the window I’m still here. Who knows? Maybe in 2021 I’ll hand the baton over to [Mercedes junior] George [Russell]. He’ll be there anyway before then. I’m going to keep going.”"

Hamilton has stated that there is a chance that he will return to Formula 1 in the 2021 season, but it is entirely possible that he will do so driving for Scuderia Ferrari as opposed to Mercedes.

Mercedes reserve driver Esteban Ocon, just like Russell, is also waiting in the wings to potentially land a ride with the Brackley-based team in the near future.

There has been speculation that the former Racing Point driver will replace Bottas ahead of the 2020 season or perhaps even before the 2019 season ends, but with Bottas’s dominant performance in the Australian Grand Prix to open up the 2019 season, Mercedes may very well end up utilizing the one-year option on his contract to retain him for the 2020 season, although it is still far too early to tell for sure.

Regardless, there will likely be at least one seat open at Mercedes ahead of the 2021 season, and Russell is definitely one of the favorites to end up in one of them.

While Williams are by far the worst team on the Formula 1 grid and Russell really won’t have a chance to prove that he belongs with a top-tier team in the sport aside of consistently beating teammate Robert Kubica and perhaps a few other drivers from time to time in the 2019 season and possibly even in the 2020 season as well, this should not affect his positive standing within the Mercedes organization, as they know how noncompetitive Williams have been and have set realistic expectations for their driver that reflect that.

More importantly, they know how talented Russell is and just how much potential he has, just as most everybody who knows anything about Formula 1 does.

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Will George Russell drive for Mercedes in the 2021 Formula 1 season? If not, what will the team’s driver lineup look like in two years? Will either Lewis Hamilton or Valtteri Bottas or perhaps both Hamilton and Bottas still drive for the team at that time? Will Esteban Ocon have replaced one of them by then? Only time will tell, and there is still plenty of it before the 2021 season begins.

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