Yesterday at 09:15
George Russell has been urged to "work hard" to beat Max
Verstappen, should the pair form Mercedes' driver line-up in 2025.
Mercedes is openly courting Verstappen for 2026, with Russell
currently out of contract for next season, as if current team-mate
Kimi Antonelli. Russell is adamant that he will still be a Mercedes
driver in 2026, and does not have any firm deadline for when he
needs to know what his future plans are. In the three seasons he
spent as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate, Russell out-qualified and
out-raced Hamilton, picking up three wins to Hamilton's one,
although Hamilton did out-score him in points by 697 to 695.
However, 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell believes that if Russell
is partnered with a second world champion in Verstappen, he must
continue to follow the example he set with Hamilton. "What I can
say to George and to Lando and all these drivers is that I drove
with four world champions, I joined the team when the men in the
other car were World Champions - Mario Andretti, Nelson Piquet,
Keke Rosberg, and Alain Prost," Mansell told AceOdds. "When you
join a team with a World Champion already there, they are not your
best friend, and if you start to go quicker than them, don't expect
them to be your best friend. "You're the No. 2 driver, and they
hate being beaten; that's why they are World Champions. "So I had
the toughest career in some ways, because I was always the
underdog, but as I demonstrated, if you work hard enough, you can
beat them and make yourself a name. "But it is definitely not easy,
George acquitted himself last year, and I think he's done a
fabulous job."
