Nico Rosberg warns that Toto Wolff choosing George Russell is a ‘huge’ risk
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George Russell, Lewis Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas ended his five-year spell at Mercedes, as he will be replaced by George Russell at the German team next season. Russell has been one of the top priorities for Mercedes since quite a while, and they finally secured a deal with him this year.
Nico Rosberg, 2016 F1 champion and former Mercedes driver was involved in a tense battle with Lewis Hamilton in the year he was crowned the champion. Things got so heated up between the two as Toto Wolff had to intervene and warn the two drivers that future reprimands will be costly for the duo.
Nico Rosberg believes that Toto Wolff could have taken a huge gamble by choosing George Russell as the Mercedes driver. Rosberg believes that the young Briton will not play second fiddle to Lewis Hamilton, which could make things uglier once again. Moreover, Russell could settle into the groove with a good qualifying session in Bahrain in March next year.
“I think that Bahrain race is what helps George most, because Valtteri is a reference, he knows how Valtteri goes in qualifying with Lewis, often they’re nip and tuck, right there, and especially in Bahrain,” Rosberg said on Sky Sports F1, as quoted by PlanetF1.
A lot of unknowns with George Russell coming to Mercedes: Nico Rosberg
Nico Rosberg believes that it will be interesting to see how George Russell fights for the championship next season. The former champion believes that there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding as to how Russell performs in 2022.
Nevertheless, Rosberg asserted that Toto Wolff has taken a huge gamble by giving the second Mercedes seat to George Russell, as tensions could rise between the team once again.
“And George was right there with Valtteri straight away, so that will give George a lot of confidence that he can get the job done and he will be quick enough,” he added.
“It was a difficult decision for Toto, because the risk is quite high. If George is really on exactly the same pace as Lewis, it could become really intense in the team. There are a lot of unknowns there, is George always going to back out, or is he going to get his elbows out? That’s just going to be so great to watch,” said Rosberg.
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Nirmit Mehta
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