Britain’s George Russell will stand in for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for Sunday’s Sakhir Grand Prix after being released by Williams, both teams announced on Wednesday. Lewis Hamilton, who has already clinched his seventh world championship, has been ruled out after testing positive for COVID-19. Williams said Britain’s Jack Aitken, their official reserve driver, will make his F1 debut as Russell’s replacement alongside Canadian regular Nicholas Latifi.
Russell, 22, will be only the fifth driver to race for Mercedes since 2010 and the third Briton to do so in the Formula One world championship after Stirling Moss and Hamilton. “I wish to thank our loyal partners at Williams for their collaboration and open-mindedness in making it possible for George to race for Mercedes this weekend,” said Mercedes principal Toto Wolff. “The conversations with the team at Williams were positive and pragmatic, and those were the key factors in reaching an agreement.”
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