George Russell will have to listen to one question again and again this season. Whether he sees Max Verstappen as a threat to his place at the Formula 1 racing team Mercedes, which will be released in accordance with the contract at the end of the year. He could also be occupied by George Russell again. The 27 -year -old Englishman is a child of Mercedes. He has been part of the funding program since 2017. He had known himself with a PowerPoint presentation. Russell is a model student. In 2017 he won the GP3 series, a year later Formula 2, 2019, the then twenty-one year old received an apprenticeship at Mercedes customer Williams and patiently stood that the traditional racing team was mostly in the bottom. Every point win counted like a victory. At Mercedes, Russell met the then strongest teammate that could be obtained in the shop. Lewis Hamilton was the ultimate challenge for his young compatriot and also a kind of master exam. The training duel ended clearly in his favor over the three years with 38:29. In the number of victories he won 3: 2, after points he lost 695: 697. “If you exist against Lewis, you don’t have to prove yourself and others anymore,” said the tall brit, after the farewell from Hamilton to Ferrari, Russell has risen to team captain at Mercedes. In 132 Grands Prix, he learned everything you need. Technical understanding, racing intelligence, hardness in duel. Russell is one of the best in the field in qualifying and one of the drivers who are most difficult to overtake. He can stroke the tires. Earlier than his engineers, he realized that this race could also be made ends with a pit stop. With this he tricked everyone else who stubbornly followed the plan of the two-stop race. The driver had digested the fact that he was disqualified because his Mercedes was too light a day later: “In my personal bill, Spa counts like a victory.” External content activate Russell’s qualities is all the more in demand this year because an eighteen -year -old rookie drives at his side and the team needs leadership. Nevertheless, he no longer feels responsibility: “Nothing has changed for me. I have to deliver my best possible performance at every moment. Whether Lewis or Kimi drives next to me and what task the team gives me.” Andrea Kimi Antonelli is as far as Russell 2019 today. Just as Hamilton was once the benchmark for Russell, Antonelli is now oriented towards his teammate: “George Holt on every opportunity he sits in the car. You feel the maximum. In everything he does, his experience and self -confidence. He knows where he has to place his car at the corner entrance and where he ends up at the corner exit when he is at the limit.” Everything under control: George Russell knows not only to deal with the tires in Bahrain, but also with annoying defects, but the bias ghosts continues to spend through the Mercedes cosmos, even now before the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia in Dschidda this Sunday (7:00 p.m. CEST in the F.A.Z.-LiveTicker for Formula 1 and at Sky) and it is greater with every race, in which the world champion is without a chance against the McLaren and sometimes also against the Mercedes. A sentence like that of the Red Bull pilot in Bahrain is almost a threat: “I am not currently driving for the World Cup, I only take part in it.” Sports director Helmut Marko fears: “If something does not change our car soon, Max is gone.” The logical address would be Mercedes. But since team boss Toto Wolff came into explanation if he had a place to offer the four -time champion. Russell drives in the form of his life, and Antonelli is a bet on the future from which one does not fall back after a season. Mercedes has to ask himself whether Russell is not the better thing because it probably costs less than half and is also more easy to care for. “For McLaren it is not enough” from him came from him in the three past years, which, from the driver’s perspective, often produced more frustration as a pleasure, not a single word of criticism. Russell also does not have such an extreme driving style as Verstappen that urges the development of the car in one direction. “The faster of the two drivers automatically determines the direction of development of the car with his gas foot,” says Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. Russell is left out when it comes to the contract and released: “I have no pressure, no hurry, no worries about the contract. It is very simple. You have to deliver your performance. Then everything results from myself. Toto and I start speaking once. ”In the World Cup ranking, Russell is still promising after four races with only 14 points behind the leader Lando Norris. The Englishman was three out of four times on the podium. “We delivered what was possible with this car. It is not enough for McLaren, for Ferrari and Red Bull,” says the three-time Grand Prix winner. The Bahrain’s great price was Russell’s masterpiece. In the last twelve rounds, almost all electronic systems had deregistered. The DRS mechanism, the flat spots of the rear wing element in Überholzons, only worked manually, the automated braking power distribution was sometimes present, sometimes not. More on the subject of the driver, instructions were constantly being given instructions on when and where he should restart the individual systems and call up standard programs. At the same time, he had to “stroke” the soft tires to the end and ward off Norris’s attacks. Wolff praised: “George fought himself through many malfunctions and gave us another podium. It was a great race under great pressure.” Was that a signal for the future? Mercedes is still covered. As long as the map is in the room, the Toto Wolff provides a comfortable negotiating position. Also because he knows that a place at Red Bull would be the worse option for his number one.
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