Instead it could not have been a better supporting argument for Russell being Mercedes’ future. It was the type of aggressive, race-changing move that makes the difference between a driver who gets stuck and a driver who can make something happen.
In an instant Russell has shown he’s capable of something that, for all Bottas’s positive attributes, Mercedes can only really rely on from Hamilton with its current line-up.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he had not worked out exactly what this race meant for the team’s future, but if we are to extrapolate one weekend into a much wider conclusion (a dangerous exercise) it should be ‘Russell should be the man alongside Hamilton to give Mercedes an even stronger wingman’ or ‘Russell is the future even if it has to be post-Hamilton’.
Craziest race of the year, in a year filled with crazy races.