The race is on, and George Russell's move to Mercedes is finally official.

And while that's to the surprise of precisely nobody, the big question now is how will he fare up against Lewis Hamilton?

And what will happen if he's a little too quick?

I'm Edshaw, and to discuss those questions and many more, I'm joined by Scott Mitchell. Well, Scott, let's dive straight into it.

You've got over the absolute shock about the announcement of Russell's Mercedes. I guess

the starting point is, do you think there's any possibility that a different

choice could have been taken for Mercedes, or was this just a much, much more straightforward

decision that perhaps Toto Wolf was made out? I think it was, I think it was difficult in the

sense of having to let Bottas go, because he has been a good member of that team.

He's been a popular member of that team,

and he has played an important part in what they've achieved as a unit

over the last few seasons.

So I can imagine that wasn't a particularly pleasant thing for Wolf to have to do.

The problem is that

Russell's case was just gradually becoming too strong to ignore. So I think if you were just

going to take it from a, let's should we say, two or three rounds into the 2021 season,

I do think it was inevitable. Up until then, I still think there was a valid argument to be made for Bottas,

especially once it became clear that Hamilton was definitely going to stay on beyond this season.

And then you've got Lewis saying he's committed to the end of 2023.

And while I don't think a driver should never necessarily dictate their teammate,

I think it's fair to take their position strongly into consideration.

So if, for example, Mercedes was sort of wavering on Russell and not totally convinced. And Hamilton came out

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