George Russell says he is excited by the prospect of being Lewis Hamilton's teammate at Mercedes for several years to come yet. After three seasons honing his craft at Williams, Russell made a long-anticipated move to the Silver Arrows for 2022 and has impressed so far, currently outscoring seven-time World Champion Hamilton on 231 points to 216 with two races still to go. Though Hamilton's contract with Mercedes is set to expire at the end of 2023, the Briton intimated over the United States Grand Prix weekend that he would be interested in signing a multi-year extension , and had previously responded positively to Toto Wolff's suggestion that Hamilton could be the first F1 driver to start 400 Grands Prix . For his part, Russell said he was eager for Hamilton to stay longer at Mercedes. "It's really exciting to have that potential of Lewis staying on for a number of years to come," Russell told media, including RacingNews365.com . "I think he has proven that he's definitely not lifted his foot off the throttle pedal, and he's definitely [in] the last few races performing probably better than ever."
Russell keen to return Mercedes to winning ways
Russell also spoke of his desire to keep learning from Hamilton, who is statistically F1's most successful driver of all time, and praised the relationship the two Britons have as they seek to return Mercedes to the winners' dais. "It's really exciting for me to have the opportunity to be his teammate, to go directly head-to-head with him and grow on this journey that we're on together, because it really does feel like a journey that the two of us are on, along with the rest of the team, in trying to bring Mercedes back to winning ways," Russell explained. "So I think we've got a really, really great, transparent relationship and it would be great to be teammates for a number of years to come." Should Mercedes not win either of the two remaining races of 2022, it would be the first time since 2012 that the Silver Arrows have gone an entire season without winning a Grand Prix.
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