Picture Credit: Formula 1
George Russell is rumoured to partner Lewis Hamilton for the next season of Formula 1. Mercedes looks all ready to let go of Valtteri Bottas and rope in Russell to sit alongside the seven-time world champion Hamilton. The talks about the same further fueled when Lewis Hamilton tagged George Russell as his dog in his latest Instagram post.
Lewis Hamilton uploaded a photo of him relaxing on the couch with his dog Roscoe. Everything looked normal until someone found out that Hamilton has tagged George Russell as his dog instead of tagging his dog’s Instagram account. Upon realizing his mistake, Hamilton was quick to change the tag but it was too late till then. People started pointing out the mistake and even started connecting it with the rumours of Russell joining Mercedes. "George for Mercedes 2022 confirmed", were the theme of the comments on Tuesday. This forced Hamilton to take down the post.
Here's Hamilton's now-deleted post:
Russell looks ready to replace Bottas
George Russell has impressed everyone with his recent performances. He finished second in a rain-affected and rather chaotic Belgian Grand Prix and made his contention even stronger. Bottas has not been so impressive and is currently sitting fourth in the Drivers' Standings, a massive 94.5 points behind his Mercedes teammate Hamilton. This has compelled Mercedes Principal Totto Wolf to consider Russell as Hamilton’s partner for the next season.
Top F1 stars have also had their say on this particular move. F1 motorsport director Ross Brawn believes there is "only one decision" to make for Mercedes. "We all know George Russell has a fantastic talent. We have seen it a lot at Williams, and we saw it amplified at Mercedes when he stood in for Lewis Hamilton at the Sakhir Grand Prix last year. George’s performance reminded me a lot of Fernando Alonso when he drove at a wet Spa for Minardi in 2001. He was mighty impressive in a car that clearly was not up to the job. In those conditions, the ratio of the driver to car changes – and we saw that with George on Saturday. In my view, there is only one decision for Mercedes next year with regards to the second seat," wrote Brawn in his post-race column.