He probably wanted to avoid fueling speculation, but Toto Wolff has said that if Mercedes could have a third car, George Russell would drive it.
Not Max Verstappen.
The question was put to the Mercedes F1 co-owner and team boss as part of the Formula 1 Grill The Grid series, in which drivers and their bosses are presented with fun challenges and questions.
Most recently, a collection of team bosses was asked whether they could have a third car on the starting grid and which driver from the 2021 harvest they would have to choose to drive.
While some of his colleagues gave reasons for their answers in a playful way, Wolff did not seem in the mood to explain it.
His answer consisted of two words: “George Russell”.
It is of course widely believed that Russell will line up for a Mercedes seat next when one of Sir Lewis Hamilton or Valtteri Bottas may be evicted as early as next year.
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If you could choose a third driver for your team from the 2021 grid, who would you choose? 
The team bosses reveal their answers 
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– Formula 1 (@ F1) June 1, 2021
The champions two current drivers are only under contract for this season, and for various reasons, their respective futures are expected to become clearer in the later part of the summer – Hamilton on whether or not he decides the time has come to retire ‘Bottas’ depending on his achievements.
The most obvious answer to the question would of course be Max Verstappen, and McLaren CEO Zak Brown singled him out and stated that he is “aggressive – I used to drive against his father and his father was very good”.
Verstappen has been linked to Mercedes as a potential long-term successor to Hamilton, but Wolff was clearly unwilling to fuel any further rumors about the Red Bull driver his team finds itself with in what appears to be a highly competitive world championship battle.
Alpine CEO Marcin Budkowski meanwhile also gave Russell another vote to drive a theoretical third car alongside Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.
“I think they’re all pretty connected, but George maybe not, so George, if you look at this, if Toto hasn’t come back to you, give me a call,” joked Budkowski.
Williams team boss Simon Roberts understandably chose Hamilton, while McLaren’s Andreas Seidl knew which side his bread was buttered on when he suggested to CEO Brown: “He’s still upset that he didn’t get the chance!”
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The post Toto Wolff would choose George Russell as the third driver ahead of Verstappen first appeared on monter-une-startup.
