02/12/2020
NEWS STORY
Mercedes has announced that George Russell will race for the team at this weekend's Sakhir GP, replacing Lewis Hamilton who is unable to compete.
Russell has been released by the German manufacturer's partner team Williams and be becomes just the fifth driver to race for the Mercedes F1 team since 2010, and the third Briton to represent Mercedes-Benz in F1 after Sir Stirling Moss and Lewis Hamilton.
Russell has been a member of the Mercedes-Benz Junior Programme since 2017, when he won the GP3 Series championship as a rookie, before repeating the feat in Formula 2 in 2018. He has been a fully-fledged F1 driver with Williams Racing since 2019, demonstrating impressive qualifying and race performances during the past two seasons.
"First and foremost, I wish to thank our loyal partners at Williams for their collaboration and open-mindedness in making it possible for George to race for Mercedes this weekend," said Toto Wolff. "The conversations with the team at Williams were positive and pragmatic, and those were the key factors in reaching an agreement.
"It will not be a straightforward task for George to make the transition from the Williams to the W11," he admitted, "but he is race-ready and has detailed understanding of the 2020 tyres and how they perform on this generation of cars. George has shown impressive form this year with Williams, playing an instrumental role in their climb up the grid, and I am optimistic that he will deliver a strong performance alongside Valtteri, who will be a demanding reference for him.
"This race will mark a small milestone for us, as we see a member of our Junior programme compete for the works Mercedes team for the first time. We have a job to do this weekend, and the full focus of our sporting efforts will be behind Valtteri and George in order to maximise our points score as a team. But, of course, our thoughts are also with Lewis, and we will be supporting him as much as we can to make a rapid recovery during his period of self-isolation."