Mercedes are reportedly eyeing a potential seat at Williams for their young British driver George Russell in 2019, according to The Times.
The 20-year-old is currently competing in Formula 2 having won the GP3 championship last year and is on top again in the penultimate step of the motorsport ladder, leading McLaren junior Lando Norris by 12 points.
If he was to go on and clinch the title in Abu Dhabi he would mimic the achievement of now Sauber driver Charles Leclerc in winning the two junior categories at the first attempt in consecutive years.
That would make a promotion to F1 thoroughly well deserved and as rumours link Lance Stroll to Force India that would open the path for Russell with Mercedes holding some weight as the engine supplier.
“George is doing a great job this year in F2, leading the championship right now in spite of some setbacks, and there’s lots of interest in him for all the right reasons,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said.
“We don’t have free seats at Mercedes in the foreseeable future but he is one of our young guys, and we will be looking at all options for how he could make the step to F1 for next year.”
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Williams’ second driver Sergey Sirotkin admits he also isn’t sure what his future holds, as the only driver this season yet to score a point after 12 races.
“No one has a guarantee in F1,” the Russian said. “At the same time and especially in our situation, the worst thing you can do is start thinking about the next season.
“I have a job to do, I know how to do it and I know what the team expects of me.”
This week, Russell was back in the W09 at the post-GP test at the Hungaroring, setting a new unofficial lap record of 1m15.575s on the Hypersoft tyre on Wednesday.
