Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff has praised the progress made by young drivers Esteban Ocon and George Russell, as the German manufacturer looks to find a driver they think can be the “next Lewis Hamilton”.
Young driver programs and academies have always been a path for talented upstarts to make their way up the motorsport ladder, the likes of Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton both made their way to Formula 1 this route, Massa with Ferrari and Hamilton with McLaren.
Red Bull has been the company with the clearest route from junior series all the way to the front on F1 in recent years and now McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari, Force India, Haas, Renault and more all have expanded their driver programs.
Though McLaren has taken chances on the likes of Hamilton, Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne, Red Bull has also arguably been the one team more willing to promote their talent on to the grid at a younger age, but Wolff doubts that will ever be the case at his team.
“Our target is to identify the next Lewis Hamilton and that is not an easy task because he’s just on an incredible level,” the Austrian told Autosport. “The decision that we have taken is that we want very fast and experienced drivers in the car, Mercedes is not the place where you learn, you need to be pretty complete when you join us.
“So far I am happy with the programme, how it is going and who knows maybe in two or three years we will have the next junior driver in a Mercedes who has made his way up from Formula 4, Formula Renault like George or Esteban did.”
In Ocon and Russell, Mercedes has two young drivers already making substantial marks in their racing careers and with the current line-up of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas potentially not a long-term one, they do have something to aim for.
“Esteban has a seat in Force India and is somebody that is a hot asset in F1 as many teams have expressed interest,” Wolff commented, “and George is just at the beginning of his F1 journey, he has achieved our joint goal which is to win the GP3 championship, now let’s see how he goes in F2 next year.
“His testing [with Force India] was very good but it is very early as he needs to earn the right to be in an F1 car and this is when the serious business starts.”
Also part of the Mercedes program is Pascal Wehrlein, who rose with the Silver Arrow by winning the DTM championship in 2015. An impressive rookie year in F1 at Manor seemingly had the German set as another future star but now that has all faded after a tough year at Sauber which has left him off the grid for 2018.
“Pascal is in a difficult position because there is not really an open spot for next year if Williams’s door closes,” the Mercedes boss admitted.
“He deserves to be in F1, he is a very good driver. On track his performance was exceptional, and for many other reasons that go much beyond the driving the doors haven’t opened like we would have hoped but I think he has the potential of being a successful F1 driver.”
