George Russell names the F1 driver Ferrari should have signed over Lewis Hamilton, ‘number one choice’

Lewis Hamilton continues to endure a disappointing first season at Ferrari, and his old Mercedes teammate George Russell now thinks the Scuderia signed the wrong driver.

The two Britons spent three years together in Brackley between 2022 and 2024 after Russell replaced Valtteri Bottas for Mercedes. The 27-year-old even had the better of Hamilton in an array of areas as partners, including the Grand Prix qualifying and race result head-to-heads.

Russell was faster than Hamilton in 39 of their 68 races as teammates and finished ahead of the 40-year-old in 30 of the 58 Grands Prix in which they both finished. Just two points even separated their point tallies together in Brackley, with Hamilton scoring 697 to Russell’s 695.

And while Russell has now stepped into his new position as the Silver Arrows’ team leader in the 2025 F1 season beside 18-year-old rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the seven-time drivers’ champion is struggling at the Scuderia with Hamilton yet to score a podium finish for Ferrari.

George Russell thinks Ferrari would prefer to have Max Verstappen over Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton’s best finish in the first eight rounds of the season ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix is P4 in Ferrari’s backyard, Imola, at the Emilia Romagna GP. Charles Leclerc leads the qualifying head-to-head at the Scuderia 7-1, too, and led Hamilton home in seven races.

READ MORE: Seven best drives of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes career before Ferrari move

The Briton’s plight for the pride of Italy so far this season has even seen Ferrari feel Hamilton is performing well below their expectations. And Russell even now thinks that Ferrari would rather sign Max Verstappen than have Hamilton with Leclerc as every team would want him.

Given his belief that every team would want to sign the Red Bull driver if he were available, Russell has zero issues with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff’s interest in signing Verstappen. The bigger dilemma would be if McLaren eyed him, so had to axe Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri.

“The truth is, no,” Russell has told Mundo Deportivo. “No, because the fact is there are two seats in a Formula 1 team. And I’ve already said I’d be happy to be Verstappen’s teammate. But the fact is, why wouldn’t a team want Verstappen?

“If I were Toto and you had two choices, if you could have any driver and all the drivers were available, I would choose myself and I would choose Verstappen. If I were in Toto’s shoes. So, I don’t see it as disrespectful. That’s how the sport goes.

“And Ferrari, if I could choose, [I] would choose Verstappen and Leclerc. McLaren would probably choose Verstappen and here it would perhaps be more challenging, Norris or Piastri? But if by 2026 every team could choose their drivers, Verstappen would be the number one choice for every team. So, it’s not disrespectful. It’s just the reality.”

Max Verstappen is set to stay at Red Bull in 2026 regardless of the exit clause in his contract

Verstappen could have the option to leave Red Bull after the 2025 F1 season, despite having a contract through the 2028 campaign. His terms feature an exit clause which allows the 27-year-old to free himself if Verstappen is not in the top three of the F1 drivers’ championship.

But it is now expected that Verstappen will reject a move to Aston Martin for 2026 and stay at Red Bull, regardless of whether or not his exit clause becomes active this summer. He has doubts about Adrian Newey’s impact on Aston Martin’s car for the new regulations in 2026.

It has also been expected for a while that Russell will sign a new two-year £46m contract at Mercedes with his current deal due to expire at the end of this year. But he is still yet to put pen to paper on new terms, despite Russell’s four podiums this year including P2 in Bahrain.