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Can Russell step into Hamilton’s shoes?
It was pretty obvious Lewis Hamilton was going to make waves in Formula 1 before he arrived, and he indeed made an immediate impact when he joined the grid. George Russell also produced the goods on his way up, but what he hasn’t had in his F1 career so far is a competitive car, such as the McLaren Hamilton jumped into in 2007.
That means you have to dig deeper to find the strengths – and weaknesses – of Russell’s game, as he battles at the back of the field with Williams. But the signs are there and, as the 22-year-old tells us in our cover piece on page 16, he is doing everything he can to improve his game. Doing so would mean maintaining the momentum he has within the Mercedes family – and mean he is better prepared for when, or if, the time comes to graduate to the title-winning team.
One thing Russell has been short of is on-track battling, but the FW43 is an improvement over last year’s Williams, and now the team has been bought by Dorilton Capital (p4). The investment should help Williams continue its recovery, and Russell can both assist and benefit from that. But he might be elsewhere before Williams wins again.
● It’s Autosport’s 70th birthday this week (p48). Coronavirus and the compressed F1 season mean we’ve had to postpone our big celebration, but be sure to look out for our Autosport 70 podcasts in the coming weeks – and a special birthday magazine in October.
Kevin Turner Editor kevin.turner@autosport.com
NEXT WEEK 3 SEPTEMBER Belgian GP report Can anyone stop Mercedes and Lewis
at Spa?
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COVER IMAGES Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
PIT & PADDOCK 4 Williams gets boost from sale 6 Ratel to bring back French tin-tops 8 Bushell and Vauxhall in BTCC return 9 Belgian GP preview 11 Opinion: Alex Kalinauckas 13 Opinion: James Newbold 15 Feedback: Your letters
COVER FEATURE 16 Is Russell the next Mercedes F1 star?
RACE CENTRE 26 How Sato pipped Dixon in Indy 500 32 BTCC: Turkington and Sutton star 40 World of Sport: DTM; IMSA; Super GT; Australian Supercars; NASCAR Cup; World Rallycross; Formula Regional European; MotoGP
INSIGHT 48 Autosport’s 70th birthday 56 How Turner took a chance that paid off
CLUB AUTOSPORT 68 Soper unscathed in Brands GP shunt 70 New lifeline for Welsh motorsport 72 Revolution Trophy to appear on F1 bill 73 Opinion: Stephen Lickorish 74 National reports: Oulton Park; Thruxton;
Silverstone; Brands Hatch; Mallory Park; Donington Park
FINISHING STRAIGHT 86 What’s on this week 88 From the archive: 1970 British GP 90 Autosport 70: founding editor looks back
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We race a BMW with an ex-F1 driver, relaunch an old contest, and look at the return of a special saloon in this month’s free edition.
27 AUGUST 2020 AUTOSPORT.COM 3
