Russell joins rise of the young guns to top of F1

Fellow Briton Lando Norris, pushing hard in his third full season at McLaren, is 21 while Alpine's French driver Esteban Ocon is 24

George Russell's move to Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton's team mate next year, announced on September 7, means every one of Formula One's top teams will have a bright young star in its driver lineup. Russell is only 23, the same age as Red Bull's championship leader Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, and with a similar talent that ultimately Mercedes could put on hold no longer. In 50 races for Williams, he has out-qualified his team mate 50 times. He has put the eighth-ranked team on the front row of the grid and onto the podium, albeit with second place in a "race" without overtaking in Belgium. "The past three seasons with Williams have given us a taste of what the future could hold for him in F1," said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff of a driver 13 years younger than seven-times world champion Hamilton.