Toto Wolff has admitted that Mercedes has already made the decision on which driver will accompany Lewis Hamilton in 2022. However, the announcement cannot be made official yet.
Mercedes He already knows what lineup of drivers he will have in 2022, but the official announcement cannot be made yet because Toto Wolff wants to have the future of the discarded tied up before communicating it.
Everything indicates that it will be George Russell who accompanies Hamilton in the official team, while Valtteri Bottas is looking for accommodation in one of the teams on the grid that still do not have a closed line-up. The main candidates are Williams and Alfa Romeo, but until this unknown is cleared, it is not likely that Mercedes will announce its driver for 2022.
“If it had been an easy decision, we would have made it earlier because we know what we have”
“Yes, but we must consider other factors to make the announcement”, Toto Wolff confirmed at Spa-Francorchamps when asked if he had already made a decision.
«Today it doesn’t make any difference. We know what we got with George. He has been outstanding in the junior categories, he has been outstanding in Williams, he has been outstanding when he was with us in Bahrain ”, he stressed when asked about Russell’s excellent performance in qualifying.
If I needed to have this definitive proof, then something would have been wrong. But the decision also considers other factors and that is why it has not been announced. If it had been an easy decision, we would have done it earlier because we know what we have with Valtteri and we know what we have with George, “he reiterated.
Confirmed seats
Wolff made it clear that he is working on the future of the discarded pilot, since he considers that both Russell and Bottas are part of the family Mercedes.
“They both deserve to be cared for in the best possible way because they are both part of the family. There are pros and cons, as with any driver line-up. We just have to manage the situation well with any driver who is not going to be in a Mercedes next year and make sure you have an exciting program », said the director of Mercedes.
Finally, Wolff offered his vision on Russell’s second position in the classification of the Belgian Grand Prix, pointing out that the British won a lot of time in the first corner of the circuit.
«In La Source he won a lot of time because he was the only one who reached the top. That is a consequence of driving and also having the correct settings and the correct tire temperatures.
“The way Williams has approached qualifying has been very smart. But you need a driver to exploit the car’s full potential or exceed it. All of that came together today and we saw a brilliant lap from a brilliant young driver », he concluded.