George Russell and Valtteri Bottas have "great options" outside Mercedes - Toto Wolff

Mercedes

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Russell and Bottas have "great options" outside Mercedes - Wolff

A decision on who partners Hamilton in 2022 is expected before the Belgian Grand Prix

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Tuesday 17 August 2021 08:00

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Toto Wolff believes both George Russell and Valtteri Bottas will have "attractive" options should they fail to land the second seat with Mercedes for 2022.

Bottas has been with the F1 championship leaders since 2017 and has helped Mercedes to double-championships in each season since.

Williams driver Russell is hoping to complete his journey through the Mercedes junior ranks and has put his name forward with some stunning performances this season, adding his first points with the back-of-the-grid team in Hungary.

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Options for either driver seem scarce with seats up and down the grid largely safe and seemingly uncompetitive.

Speaking in an interview including GPFans Global, however, Mercedes team principal Wolff suggested the driver that misses out on the Mercedes seat should have options to stay in F1.

"George and Valtteri would have probably more than one option to stay in Formula 1 and race in Formula 1 with an attractive outlook," said Wolff.

"Most teams see themselves as challenger teams, that they expect a big step to be done next year because of the cost cap that is now valid for everybody.

"They've concentrated on next year's development very early, you can see that Alfa, Williams haven't brought in a huge amount of pieces anymore for a while.

"I think George and Valterri would have, whatever we decide, great options."

A decision is expected to be made ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.