Russell VS Bottas

The big talk in contracts recently is who will be joining Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes next year? Mercedes wanted to sort out Lewis’ contract first as both the team and himself wanted it to be done as quickly as possible, unlike last year. The main two drivers for contention are current Williams driver and Mercedes junior, George Russell and the other is current Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas.

Russell seems to be going from strength to strength every race and season, last year he got called up last minute to replace Lewis at the Sakhir Grand Prix and I think we all saw how well he did in a car he doesn’t drive, didn’t actually fit into and had no time to prepare! We’re now currently seeing him put the Williams in and around the top 10 in Quali, seeing him fight for points and finish near the top 10. George has been at Williams for three years now after being loaned out to them from Mercedes, and his helped the British team develop so much and you can see how they have improved! Russell has also got approval of two time world champion Fernando Alonso, with George getting called “A future world champ”.

Where as Bottas has been at Mercedes now since 2017, and his put in some good performances since his been with the team and his played a good part in the Constructors, but now this season it’s like his not there much within the team. He hasn’t had the best start to the season, his had no wins, two DNF and at one of the races he didn’t even finish in the points. Is it just simple bad luck? Or does he feel the pressure? Who knows!

Toto Wolff, Mercedes Team Principal say “We value them both for their strengths and for what they can contribute to the team” on both George Russell and Valtteri Bottas.

My Opinion-

I do actually reckon a deal has been done but there holding off on announcing, I did think they would do a double announcement on the weekend of Silverstone for both Hamilton and Russell.

However I want George in that Mercedes seat! I think he deserves it, his worked very hard in the past 3 years and I think that’s clear for everyone to see. Mercedes need to think about the future here and where they want to be after Lewis leaves…

The thing what confuses me about Valtteri is the fact he says his fighting for championships and his said it this year as well, when in reality he isn’t… Yeah he has landed on the podium a few times this year but so has other drivers…

The decision over the second seat will be made over the summer break and it seems that Toto Wolff has got a hard decision to make!