George Russell has backed Kimi Antonelli to carry on the duties vacated by Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. Hamilton will join Ferrari next year and bring his long-standing and highly successful partnership with Mercedes to an end. The Brackley-based squad opted to sign its junior Antonelli to replace the seven-time world champion. Russell has become the more experienced driver at Mercedes - however he has asserted it will not have a significant bearing on who the engineers will lean on. “Ultimately, for most F1 teams, you have nearly 1,000 people who are working towards building these two cars, yet you only have two drivers driving it,” he told media including RacingNews365. “So in my case, it was never that Lewis had a stronger voice. The team listened to us both equally because both of our opinions were extremely important.” Russell expects Antonelli will have various ideas to pitch to the engineers despite his lack of experience with F1 machinery. “[It is] the same going into next year,” Russell said. “Kimi's new, he's fresh. And I'm sure he's going to have a lot of great ideas to bring to the table. “I am the more experienced of the two, but we will both get equal voices the same way. “We will both equally contribute towards the development the same way as it was with Lewis and I.”
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