Enlarge image
The face of the future?
George Russell
Photo: James Gasperotti / imago images / ZUMA Wire
The Briton George Russell will be the new team-mate of record world champion Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes in the coming Formula 1 season.
The 23-year-old has signed a long-term contract, announced the Silberpfeil racing team.
He will take over the cockpit of the Finn Valtteri Bottas, who is moving to the Alfa Romeo team.
It was a huge step in his career, Russell said.
"But it also means that I have to say goodbye to my team-mates and friends at Williams." The Mercedes pupil is currently driving his third season in the premier motorsport class for the Williams team and recently had repeatedly impressed with strong performances.
Russell has won every racing series in which he competed and gave Williams a foretaste of what the future could hold for him in Formula 1, said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
On the podium in Belgium
For a while now, Russell's promotion to the world championship had seemed just a matter of time.
The highlight was the second grid position in qualifying at Spa at the end of August.
Since there was no real race in Belgium due to the heavy rain, Russell also celebrated his first podium there.
Last season, the Englishman was also allowed to replace the sick Hamilton at Mercedes in Bahrain and would have won the race right away if the pit crew hadn't made a mistake.
jan / dpa
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/SIL73HWCGXKSZBZRANYT36EZLI.jpg)