George Russell reckons he could have as much as 20 years left in F1 as he prepares to become the senior driver at Mercedes. The British racer will be joined at the Silver Arrows by teenage hotshot Kimi Antonelli in 2025.
The Italian youngster, who embarrassingly crashed Russell’s car in his free practice outing at the Italian Grand Prix, will replace Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton. Russell has regularly matched the seven-time world champion during their three years together but will be under pressure to see off Antonelli.
With world champion Max Verstappen potentially available for 2026, 2025 could be a career-defining year for Russell, who unluckily jumped from Williams to Mercedes in 2022 at the start of a new regulations cycle. The previously all-conquering team had chronic issues getting on top of the new ground-effect cars and it has taken them until this year to become regular front-runners again, with Russell winning one race and Hamilton two.
Despite that, the 26-year-old doesn’t reflect on the last two years as waste. He insisted time is on his side as he hinted he could follow Fernando Alonso by racing well into his 40s.
“The last two years have flown by and I feel I still have 15 to 20 years ahead of me,” said Russell ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. “That’s why I don’t see it as lost time. As a driver, you always want a perfect car. You learn that this is not possible.”
Russell pointed out that periods of one-car domination – as F1 has seen with Verstappen, Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel – can unravel very suddenly.
“If you are successful for a long time, people think it will last forever. That is a misconception,” he said. “When Vettel became world champion four times in a row, people couldn’t imagine anyone else winning. It was the same with Lewis and now maybe also with Max.
“If the season had started after the summer break, nobody would be able to say who would be world champion. This in the nature of this sport.”
Any fears that Verstappen could replaced Russell at Mercedes for 2026 could be offset by the fact the ambitious Aston Martin team, who this week announced the arrival of legendary designer Adrian Newey, are keen to swipe the Dutchman from Red Bull.
