Wolff on teammates Hamilton and Russell: 'The division of roles is clear'

Starting next year, George Russell will drive for Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton's teammate. The Brit leaves Williams to drive for the top team.

It will be exciting to see if the 23-year-old driver can make things difficult for the seven-time world champion. Since Valtteri Bottas joined Mercedes, Hamilton hasn't really had any competition with his teammate.

"We are assuming that George will accelerate and show speed", team boss Toto Wolff says on the liveblog of Motorsport-Total.com. The team boss seems to have great confidence that the current Williams drivers will one day fight for a world title. "That could happen in the first year and that would be a luxury problem that we would then have to solve", Wolff explains.

According to Wolff, Russell is "a young up-and-coming talent who continues to deliver extraordinary performances". The Williams seems to have come back stronger and Russell has already managed to score points for the team several times this season. Last weekend in Sochi he even finished third in the wet qualifying.

Russell, who has yet to win an F1 race, will be up against Hamilton's 100 wins and seven world titles. "This division of roles is clear for both of them", Wolff said. Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that both will fight for the world title in 2022.