Lewis Hamilton v Williams: The main influence for George Russell’s ‘next step’ revealed

George Russell has said taking on the de facto ‘team leader’ role at Mercedes will be the “next step in my journey”, once Lewis Hamilton departs for Ferrari.

Russell will be driving alongside a rookie team-mate next year when Andrea Kimi Antonelli steps up to Formula 1, making him the experienced hand behind the wheel within the Silver Arrows in 2025.

George Russell ready for ‘next step’ at Mercedes in F1 2025 season

Hamilton has won six of his seven World Championships to date as a Mercedes driver, with Russell having already won the season-long qualifying battle between the two for 2024 at this stage.

It’s Hamilton who leads in the points as it stands, though, with Russell having been stripped of victory in Belgium for his car having been underweight.

But having partnered the most statistically successful driver in the sport’s history for the last three seasons, Russell said he feels “ready in every way” to be a title challenger in his own right next year.

“This is the next step in my journey,” Russell told German publication Auto Motor und Sport when asked about taking on the ‘team leader’ role at Mercedes in 2025.

“I’ll have been in the team for four years and part of the Mercedes family for eight or nine years. I feel ready in every way to fight for the World Championship in 2025.

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“I also feel ready to be a little better together with the team every race and to help develop the car further.

“Next year we will build on what Lewis and I have sown over the last three years.”

Having driven for three years at a then-struggling Williams, Russell graduated to Mercedes in place of Valtteri Bottas in 2022 – with that first season alongside Hamilton proving a baptism of fire for both driver and team as they were largely unable to match Red Bull and Ferrari in Formula 1’s new ground-effect regulations.

But with that, the Briton said valuable lessons were learned while partnering the seven-time World Champion, which Antonelli will find by driving for a title-winning team from the off in his career.

“When you’re thrown in at the deep end, you learn faster,” Russell said.

“From my experience I can say that I learned more in my first year alongside Lewis than in my three years at Williams.

“Every driver who has won championships in their career is fast. You can put him in a top team in his first year, like Lewis once did at McLaren.

“I’m sure that Charles [Leclerc] at Ferrari or Max [Verstappen] at Red Bull would have done a good job in a smaller team even without the pre-season preparation.

“Maybe at the expense of one or two mistakes, but that’s part of it. Kimi will learn from this. You either have the speed or you don’t. Kimi has it.”

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